Great reflections!

Powerful and unsettling to read how methodically those drills were designed to reshape behavior under the guise of "confidence." I'm sorry you had to endure that kind of manipulation disguised as training.

Reading this made me reflect on my own path—though mine was very different. I never needed a coach to "flunk" me or role-play scenarios to learn life's harsh lessons. 😅 Life itself drilled me early on: selling empanadas and tamales during tourist season as a kid, navigating scarcity on Mexico's Gulf coast, learning through real hunger—not simulated "situations." The street was my coach, and survival my curriculum. No one had to pretend to be a prostitute or a communist to test me; reality threw far stranger (and harder) challenges my way.

Glad you made it out. And glad some of us were "drilled" not by ideology, but by life—and learned resilience without losing our humanity in the process. 💪