"Stop shrinking to feel taller"

In the dorm basement the fluorescent lights made my skin look thin and translucent. I learned early to lower my voice, tuck my laugh behind my teeth, and edit the parts of me that made others uncomfortable. Campus clubs, late-night study sessions, even group chats felt like auditions where I judged every word before it left my mouth.

One semester I took a class where the professor insisted we speak for ten minutes about a small thing we loved. My palms were slick as I talked about my grandmother's mango chutney. The room smelled like chalk and lemon cleaner, and for the first time someone leaned forward instead of away. They did not ask me to shrink.

It turns out the people who needed my full size were the ones who stayed. Stop shrinking to make other people feel tall.