From Squirmy to Strong: My Journey with Compliments and Criticism
a poem
Published in
2 min readNov 2, 2024
How do I react when someone
pays me a compliment?
It used to be
that I would be squirmy
I could not face
did not know what to say
in face of good,
other than to bat it down,
which only makes
the both of us
equally uncomfortable.
I have learned
with grace, to accept
a compliment, to hear
the gratitude and appreciation
where I think there is
authenticity and genuineness,
which has opened up the
freedom for me
to start sharing compliments,
appreciation, gratitude of my own-
one of the most healing
parts of my journey away from trauma,
where I only heard criticisms,
and every criticism was a threat.
How do I react when someone
is critical of you?
