I Gave Away the Birthday Chocolates, Then the Screaming Started

women who apologized too much for existing.

Sometimes people told me I sounded cold when I talked about my family.

They did not understand that cold was not the absence of feeling. It was the presence of self-preservation.

I spent thirty-five years bending, giving, excusing, shrinking so other people could feel taller. The moment I stopped, they tried continue reading …