I Spoke Up in the Meeting

Dear Delyara, Not brilliantly. Not perfectly. Not with some cinematic surge of confidence. I spoke up while still hearing the old fear in my own body. The fear of sounding too much, too serious, too visible, too direct, too difficult. All those old workplace ghosts still hovering at the edge of my voice. I spoke anyway. And afterward, what I felt most strongly was not pride. It was relief. Because every time I speak before I feel fully safe, I teach my body that old rooms do not get to govern every new one. That matters more than people think.