The first time I let it slide, I told myself it wasn\u2019t a big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was just a joke. Just a passing comment. Just them being them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I nodded along, laughed where I was supposed to, and carried on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then it happened again. And again. And again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until one day, I caught myself sitting across from someone, listening to words that drained the color from my face, and thinking: How did we get here?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And I knew exactly how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All those moments of silence. All the times I bit my tongue instead of pushing back. Every little excuse I made\u2014It\u2019s fine. It\u2019s not worth making a scene.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time a line was crossed and I let it happen, the line moved. Every time I brushed it off, I gave permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not because they were trying to be cruel. Not because they wanted to test me. But because people take cues. They go by what you allow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if you don\u2019t believe you deserve better, no one else will either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I stopped explaining away the discomfort. A correction here. A refusal there. A well-timed silence when someone expected me to laugh along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people adjusted. Some didn\u2019t. Some left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the ones who stayed? They saw me the way I saw myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Change the reflection, and the world shifts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first time I let it slide, I told myself it wasn\u2019t a big deal. It was just a joke. Just a passing comment. Just them being them. I nodded along, laughed where I was supposed to, and carried on. Then it happened again. And again. And again. Until one day, I caught myself sitting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52,10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-learnings","7":"category-personal","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"vasudha","author_link":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/author\/vasudha\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2923,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922\/revisions\/2923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}