"Yeah, that makes sense", Adrien nodded to himself. He stood in silence for a while. "It makes sense, but I only ever heard the opposite. Even when I was in school, the teachers would say that students must always give their all, and that nothing less than that is acceptable... And -- yeah, people did hurt themselves to meet these expectations. To prepare for exams, I've gone without sleeping, skipped meals... So did most people".

"It's not right", Val said, shaking his head. "You were being taught that you matter less than what is asked of you".

"Yeah...", Adrien mumbled. "But why do you think it happens so much?".

"I suppose there is an underlying belief that a reward needs to be proportional to some kind of suffering", Val said, his eyes dark. "Suffering becomes the proof of deserving... But that is not how it is. Besides, you shouldn't ever need to prove that you are enough. You shouldn't ever need to prove that you deserve existing as yourself".