What made you more empathetic or sympathetic?

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1. [removed]

2. Nearly dying in a car accident.

3. Having a child. I swear, it was like a someone flipped a switch.

4. Early life trauma that required me to develop a hypersensitivity to the emotions and needs of those around me. I do not endorse this method.

5. This is gonna sound nerdy but I remember distinctively the first time I read a children’s version of Les Mis as a child, and reading Javert’s suicide made me realize that people can be completely well intentioned and still do the wrong thing. That moment literally changed my perspective on people.

6. I guess having a friend group mostly comprised of people who had enormous amounts of trauma in their lives. I’ve had struggles for sure but nowhere near the magnitude of a lot of people I’m close to, so seeing people who’ve been affected by illness, discrimination, awful family life and the like made me a lot more aware of what others experience and the results of those experiences. It’s easier to imagine being in those scenarios when you’ve seen the issues that grow from them.

7. Read all kinds of books, not just ones with protagonists that match your experiences.

8. First being bullied when I was a teen, and then having a baby.

9. When I realized I was a part of the LGBTQA+ community. It made me realize the struggles minorities face and the injustice of restricting human rights based on who they love or identity as. I became a much more caring person, and I listen more now instead of trying to fix it immediately.