\u2026Later at home, I found a small piece of paper tucked inside that said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cI was you once. Scared, judged, and unsure how I\u2019d make it through. But I did. And you will too. Don\u2019t let anyone make you feel small\u2014you\u2019re already doing something incredible. One day, you\u2019ll look back and realize how strong you really are. Keep going. \u2014 M.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
I stared at the note, my hands shaking. All day I\u2019d been weighed down by stares and whispered comments. But this\u2014this felt like a lifeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I never saw the woman again. But I kept that note in my wallet, right next to my baby\u2019s first photo. Every time I felt like giving up, I\u2019d read her words again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now, years later, with my daughter in my arms and my head held high, I find myself handing a folded bill to another young girl who looks like I once did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inside it, a new note reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cI was you once. Scared. But never alone.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2026Later at home, I found a small piece of paper tucked inside that said: \u201cI was you once. Scared, judged, and unsure how I\u2019d make it through…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}