[ There's a deliberate pause on Claude's end as he considers that question. What comes to mind first is the answer he wishes he could give, and maybe in some ways it would be kinder to deliver that one. But it would be untrue, and for all his creative bending of the truth when it suits him this strikes Claude as one topic he's not willing to do that on. What follows is the realistic one. ]

I wish I could say it did but I think it's more accurate to say I got better at ignoring much of it. [ That's paired with a slow shrug in something like apology because if the situations were reversed? It's not what he'd want to hear. ] That's not to say some of it didn't still hurt now and then, but it also made me more determined to not give people reasons to believe what was said was right.

That's not to say any of it was easy either since it can sound that way when condensed into... well, this. Nothing about it was particularly easy, and I still say it shouldn't change who you are.