I still think about the way he spoke to me in that meeting

Dear Delyara, It wasn’t shouting. That’s what makes it harder to explain. It was that dismissive tone some men use at work when they want to make you feel smaller without giving anyone else enough evidence to call it out. He interrupted me twice, explained something I already knew, and then responded to my point as if I’d said something slightly childish. The meeting ended. Everyone moved on. I carried it home. That’s what I hate about those moments. They don’t stay in the office. They get into the drive home, the dinner mood, the patience level, the way I replay my own sentences later wondering if I should have pushed back more or less. I’m tired of how much low-level disrespect can affect a whole evening.