To everyone who doesn't understand why I love animals more than people,

I get that it makes me sound crazy, but, hear me out. It's not that I don't like people. They are great. People are among the things keeping me in check- in the last few days of my undergraduate career. There's just something about animals that is calming. I have written about this before, but I suffer from silent disabilities. The ones you don't see. I suffer from Major Depressive Disorder-Seasonal, Depression, ADHD, and Anxiety. I don't know if animals can sense how stressed I am, especially dogs, but they do.

Because of these issues, I am afraid to talk to people.

I don't want to be a bother for anyone.

I don't want people to think that I'm more work than what it is worth for them to be my friend.
That's why being around animals is less stressful, for me.

One day, I went to my aunt and uncle's house. They own a dog and dog-sit and foster many other dogs. I saw one who I absolutely fell in love with. A tiny, itty bitty American Staffordshire Terrier named Shelby. I sat with my uncle, talking, when she hopped up in my lap and let me pet her for an hour. She ended up falling asleep on me for a bit and every once in a while she would wake up and turn around to look at me, almost as if to check and make sure I was ok. She would tentatively lick my face and then go back to sleep for a little bit. It was then that I realized how much I absolutely needed an animal in my life.

I know there are people out there that think that other people who have better relationships with animals than humans aren't worth the time, but it is thinking like that that makes me turn away from human comfort. Pets never judge you. They just want to love you. They don't lash out at you for no reason. They don't insult you to make themselves feel better. When you have anxiety, all of these thoughts happen simultaneously when having an interaction with another person, but with a pet, as long as you treat it with respect and kindness, it will love you for as long as it lives.

All of these reasons are why I love animals more than people. I even love the animals that are considered dangerous, because 99.9% of the time, they are misunderstood or treated unfairly. Those things don't make them bad animals, they make then scared animals.