i grew up in a society where girls were made of glass delicate, careful, perfect. where women in the kitchen taught us to fold ourselves in the space between what we wanted and what we had to be. you have to be smart. sharp as the edge of a broken plate swept beneath the kitchen table. you have to be careful. keys threaded between your fingers like claws cover your drink always expect someone, and hope they believe the lie. you have to be interesting. but not too interesting, because men can't hold a fucking conversation that's not about them. you have to be extraordinary. always running, always reaching proving yourself at every table you sit at next to men who never had to. you have to be polite. pretend not to notice the misogyny bleeding through the cracks of every interaction. we teach our girls to be sorry and our boys to be certain. oh, to be a man and never have to be anything but yourself.