I honestly can’t do this anymore. I just… can’t. Today was… a disaster. A complete and utter train wreck. I had to present to the board. THE BOARD. And I wore those stupid non-prescription glasses again, because my *mentor* (who is actually a total dick, btw) said it makes me look more “gravitas-y.” Gravitas-y! And I used all the jargon, all the outdated bullshit I could think of. “Synergistic alignments,” “paradigm shifts in market segmentation,” “optimizing our core competencies for future-proofed ROI.” I even said “low-hanging fruit” like it was still cool. Like I was some seasoned pro, some *thought leader* (ugh, I hate myself). And they just… stared. Blank. Faces. Like I was speaking Martian. Or worse, like they *knew*. Knew I was faking it. Knew I was just a kid in a suit, playing dress-up. My hands were shaking so bad the clicker almost flew across the room. I felt like such a complete fraud. And then I got home. And it wasn’t over. It’s never over. Dinner, bath, bedtime story (the same one, every night, because *God forbid* we deviate from the routine). And I’m just going through the motions, right? My brain is still back in that sterile boardroom, replaying every cringey buzzword, every dead stare. And I’m trying to be present, I really am. But I’m just so damn tired. Like, bone-deep, soul-crushing tired. My kid looks at me with those big eyes, full of trust, full of… need. And I’m supposed to be everything. The provider, the protector, the one who always knows what to do. The strong one. But I’m not strong. I’m cracking. I keep thinking about what would happen if I just… walked away. Just for a day. Or an hour. Just to sit in silence. No corporate bullshit, no bedtime stories, no tiny hands pulling at my shirt. Just… nothing. But I can’t. I can’t because who would? Who would pay for the daycare? Who would remember the doctor’s appointments? Who would hold them when they cry from a bad dream? It’s always me. Always. And I’m so exhausted from trying to *leverage my unique skill set to drive stakeholder engagement* (kill me now) all day, and then being… everything else… all night. I just want it to stop. Just for a minute.