Okay so sometimes you just… like, you just have to say something you know? Even if it's completely messed up and like, totally goes against everything everyone around you believes. And you keep it inside, every single day, every single day, and it just eats at you and you just smile and nod and pretend like you're totally on board with all of it. Because you HAVE to. Because if you don't, everything just falls apart. Like, I’m a graphic designer, which is great and everything, and my whole friend group and my coworkers, they're all like, really activist-y, you know? And that’s cool, like, I get it, I really do. And our workspace, it’s this amazing collaborative place and everyone is just so, like, connected and supportive, and we all hang out after work and go to protests and talk about like, how we're going to change the world and everything. And I LOVE them, I really do. But then sometimes they’ll be talking about, like, economic policy or something, and I just have this thought, and it’s like, a really CONSERVATIVE thought, and it’s totally the opposite of what everyone else is saying, and I just have to bite my tongue so hard I almost bleed. Like, I actually AGREE with some of the stuff those other people are saying, the ones they HATE, and it’s just… it’s like, you know that feeling when you're in a car and you suddenly realize you're going the wrong way but you can't say anything because everyone else is just so confident? That's me, every single day. And it’s not even like I'm a bad person for thinking it, you know? It's just... different. And if I said it out loud, if I just, like, even HINTED at it, I just KNOW they would all look at me like I was a complete alien, and my friendships would probably just… evaporate. And the workspace, like, it’s not just a job, it's my WHOLE social life and everything, and if I lost that, like, where would I even GO? What would I even DO? So I just keep quiet, and I keep my head down, and I make all their cool activist designs, and I pretend like I'm totally into all the same stuff as them, even when my brain is just screaming the exact opposite. And it's exhausting, you know? It's really, really exhausting. And I just don't know how much longer I can keep it up.