Abby Mims’ stories and essays have been published in several literary magazines and anthologies, including but not limited to: The Nervous Breakdown, The Normal School, The Santa Monica Review, Swink, Other Voices and Cassette From My Ex. This piece is a part of her memoir-in-progress, Love in the Time of Glioblastoma. She blogs intermittently and tweets infrequently. More of her musings can be found at www.abbymims.com.
The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others—who are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation, which, as Rhett…