Mick Hunt

And so that moment I grew up, I was no longer a 10-year-old doing what 10-year-olds did.

I started to understand what today we would call emotional intelligence in not just myself, but in others.

So I got to understand what would trigger my father so that instead of him

welling off on my mom just hit me, right?

Instead of him finding a way to mentally embarrass or punish or psychologically embarrass or punish my mom, just do it to me because when I know it's happening, I'm prepared for it, right?

It's a game to me.

And so at 10, that just became who I was.

And so I still was a 10-year-old, don't get me wrong.

But at the same time, I was thinking future.

I was thinking, how can I get my mom out of this situation?

How can I understand my dad and make life somewhat easier for my mom?

And so I grew up very different.

I never wanted to go spend the night or hang out at other people's homes because I had to protect my mom and my sister.

When school was over, I'm going home to make sure my mom's okay.

When my mom is up at night, I don't sleep much now because as a kid, I always stayed up.

If my mom was struggling, I wanted to be there.

I wanted to make sure that she was okay.

So I would sit by my door every night, every night, making sure my mom was okay.

I never slept as a kid.

I would call it responsibility now.