Melanie: In that way, me and Dawn are a lot alike. Not that I was physically abused like Dawn was. But we were both subjected to unrealistic expectations and emotional manipulation from a very early age. I had to succeed at every extracurricular activity they forced me to take up just to earn the tiniest scraps of feigned affection from them. Actually, I remember every time my Mother actually gave me a hug...I'd just start bawling. They meant the world to me as a kid. Only now as an adult, I realized just how stiff and emotionless those hugs were. They much preferred buying stuff to fill the role of an emotional connection, rather than...facilitate an actual emotional connection. I suppose if there's a silver lining, it made it way easier to connect with Dawn and fast-tracked us to being best friends pretty quickly.
Melanie: When I was approaching puberty, everything just kept building up. More and more responsibility was heaped on me, with less and less of an emotional reward given to me for my hard work. The older I got, the more my parents expected me to excel for the sake of excelling. And it all came to a head during my...*Cringes* Ballet recital. *Shakes head* I was performing my heart out when I made a simple misstep, and twisted my ankle, dropping to the ground center stage for all to see. I knew, I knew in that moment, that I had failed my parents. I wasn't 'perfect', and I embarrassed the family. I didn't know-I couldn't know that I needed parents who could tell me that it was 'Okay' to not be perfect. That nobody was perfect. In that instant, while the audience remained dead quiet, everything in my mind just mounted, and I...I broke. I wept and sobbed hysterically until a stagehoof could help me off stage...The only coherent thing I could get out through my sobs was how sorry I was.
Melanie: It was the worst and happiest day of my life. Worst because of the scene I made at the recital. But also the best because my Doctor told my parents in no uncertain terms, I could no longer perform ballet. He also told my parents that they were required to put me in therapy or he would report them to child services. *Chuckles dully* My parents figured while it marred the image of their daughter as 'broken' to seek therapy, something they said in front of me many times, therapy stood to fix me. What they didn't count on was my therapist becoming the parent I needed. Asking me 'what I wanted to do?', and telling me that 'I didn't need to be perfect, and no mammal was.'
Melanie: So I began to rebel, I got more and more ornery. My parents eventually cut the therapy believing it to be the source of my rebellion, which wasn't entirely untrue, but I kept seeing my therapist out of the office until I was old enough that my parents couldn't stop me. Not many therapists would do that, but Mrs Suricatta really cared about me...I don't go to therapy anymore, but we still keep in touch, and I'll always see that meerkat as being like a mother to me. Well, she and my Aunt. My life with my parents ended in college, where I jumped at the chance to dorm. Though my schooling for a degree like genetic research was completely covered by the City thanks to it being deemed as a practical degree, my grades got me a full scholarship for my dorm, general survival, and resources so I could focus on my degree full time. But a degree of that caliber takes longer than most to earn. Still, once I got out of that house, I rarely ever went back.
Melanie: In college, I eventually met my Gussy-Wussy when he enrolled and well...the rest is history. *Giggles* And aside from his sleep equipment making so much noise it made Vernon want to jump out a window when he lived with Gus, I've been happy ever since we met and moved in together.
Gus: To be fair, it helps that you sleep like a rock. *Laughs*
Melanie: It's like white noise to me at this point. *Chuckles* I honestly think the super-reactor powering the heating and cooling systems in Zootopia could have a full-scale meltdown and I'd sleep right through it.
