The Cost of Silence

I grew up with an intrinsic sense of fairness, a barometer guiding me when things didn’t feel right or just. But I also spent most of my life with a deep fear of taking up space. And as a woman in a career where I was heavily outnumbered, it only got worse. I didn’t want to be called out for being difficult or too much which kept me quiet and feeling helpless. And at times when I couldn’t take it anymore and would speak up, it was often met with the very comments that I feared the most thus further entrenching this narrative in my head that I should stay small. This was a tough combination for a person who has a lot to say about a world where systems are terribly flawed. But what I didn’t realize back then was that my inaction was the thing shackling me, not my voice.

Something shifted in me a couple of years ago… maybe maturity, confidence, the landscape is finally allowing women to have a voice… I don’t know… but my fears of being called “difficult”, was replaced with a sense of pride. You see, being a respectful disrupter is just about wanting the world to be a better place. It’s about fixing the unjust things we see and going against the status quo. It’s about having a purpose in this world. It’s about hope. And the people who call you difficult are the ones benefitting from a system staying broken.

So, the next time you hear a bad joke or see someone being treated unfairly ask yourself, will my inaction cause more hurt than speaking up? For me, the answer is now to always speak up 🗣📣

#troublemaker #speakup #respectfuldisruptors #hope #change #thecostofsilence