I probably absorbed it as a core way of handling things in self-talk. I mean, my understanding was likely primitive as even though I was precicious in schoolwork, I was reading books intended for adults as a preteen/young teenager.
This was another one. I was the custodian at my local church from age 13-18 – after school cleaning up. There was a room with a small libraries for the women’s groups to meet in. I’d sit in there sometimes, alone, look at all of the books.
Here was an ancient book at the time from the 1950s: Youth the ages from 10 to 16.
Well, I was 13.
So I sat there and read all about “me” as I’d have been in the 1950s. Then I read about how I was at 10, 11, 12 and compared what was right and what was wrong about it.
Then I looked into the future where “Jane would stay in her room for hours listening to Jazz records on the grammophone” – which made me laugh – at age 15.
Well, I hit 15 a few years later, was listening to Pink Floyd for hours in my room and remembered that book from when I was 13 and laughed. It nailed me.