I don't know that I'd handle it any better - differently, perhaps. But not better.

[It's something he's told Jaeger as well, really.]

I don't know if my past life would have been anything like I am now if he hadn't been tampered with. It's difficult to say; he didn't have a chance at anything resembling a normal life from the start, from what I understand. He was told the lot of them were "collected" - I don't know if that means he was kidnapped or handed over willingly, or...sold, or what that entails. Either way, the man who started all that ensured that nothing was going to be normal for him from then on.