I do hurt for people who hurt.

Secondary traumatization.

What that means is that you didn't directly

experience the trauma, but you listened, and you cried,

and you hurt with the people that did,

and you supported them in processing that.

The hard part of that is that each individual

has their own story, and as a Mental Health Specialist,

you get to take on all of the stories,

and you get to hear day after day about tragedy.

You get to see loss, you get to hear people screaming

and crying because someone they love has been killed

or terrible things that have happened to them.

And it does go in, you can't be a human being

without being impacted by that.

And if you feel like it shouldn't hurt you because

you weren't there, I understand that, I feel that way myself.

I feel like, "Oh no, it wasn't me,

I didn't have to go through that."

But the fact is, I do have nightmares about other people's

experience, I do hurt for people who hurt.

And there's a part of me that's glad

because I wouldn't want them to have hurt alone.

I wouldn't want them to have been alone in the tragedy

that they underwent, and if I have to carry part of that

home with me for them, then I'm happy to do it,

and I would do it again.