Martyrdom, Comfort, and Old Dogs — Becoming Janine

Janine Bertolo (she/her)
4 min readJan 20, 2021

I have never been a friend of comfort, at least not as long as I can remember. But I have a feeling we might be able to get along.

I’ve internalized a voice that sings “Nothing comes easy.”

The complete soundtrack includes: “You have to struggle to get ahead.”

“You get what you pay for.”

“No pain, no gain.”

“You have to suffer to be beautiful”

and other hits.

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Janine Bertolo (she/her)

Living & working in Gatineau, Quebec, on the unceded territory of the Algonquin People. Post-trauma growth coach. Anticapitalist crone. Loves to float.