
It's not that Meredith Bryan didn't have friends—it's that she wasn't, well, friendly. Until she tore down the fortress she'd built around herself, and the world smiled back.
By Meredith Bryan
My mother was robbed at gunpoint in our home when she was pregnant with my sister. As a toddler, I found the event less scarring than she did (her water broke from the stress). Still, she spent the rest of my childhood instilling in me a fear of...