Aftermetoo - Blog Posts
To Anyone Who’s Still Carrying It
You don’t get over it in a straight line. You just don’t. And anyone who tells you different hasn’t been through it or hasn’t faced it yet.
Harassment doesn’t always leave bruises you can point to. It gets under the skin in quieter ways. It makes you second-guess what you heard, how you felt, what you wore, what you said. It can turn a job into a minefield and your own instincts into something you stop trusting.
And it doesn’t end the day you leave the job, or file the report, or speak the truth out loud. Sometimes it lingers. In your body. In your sleep. In how you walk into new rooms.
But here’s what I know: healing doesn’t have to look heroic. It’s not always confrontation or closure. Sometimes it’s just getting through the day without that weight taking over. Sometimes it’s finding one person who listens. Sometimes it’s deciding to stay. Or leave. Or try again.
Whatever it looks like --- that’s valid. You’re allowed to move forward without explaining why it hurt or proving that it did.
It was real. You’re not imagining it. And you are absolutely not alone.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
He said I was a real asset to the team but the way he said “asset” made me want to wash my hands.
Twice.
You said thank you.
With a smile so dry it might’ve caught fire.
My body is not your debate.
“You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’re holding.”
4th thing maybe: who did you 'work for' and why?
"You are your best thing."
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Falling Through The Floor
I took the cheque home and folded it in half. Then again. Then again. Until it was a sharp little square I could press into my palm. It didn’t feel like money. It felt like silence.
The job was good. Rare these days for someone like me. And when he leaned too close and said too much - breath hot and stale with knowing - I only smiled.
Afterward, I kept working. Of course I did.
At the end of the week the cheque came, same as always. it felt heavier this time. Like hush money.
And I took it anyway. Because that’s what you do when the alternative is falling through the floor.
Boss: "Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We'll circle back..."
Me:
“There is nothing you can throw at me that I cannot metabolize, no matter how painful or unfair or unjust."
-Maggie Nelson
Fred "touch me not" Gruber finally got let go after his third reprimand.
Dance of the Forest Nymphs by Warren B Davis
When she reported it they told her she was brave
Then they made her remote
HR calmly studying "the policy"...
Me (the cat) making sense of what happened
Notice me (fraidy cat) still perched on the company's shoulders
(I need money to be fed)
((ugh / rearr))
Clémentine Dondey (French, Unknown Birth Date, c. Early 19th Century) - A Soothsayer studying a Book of Necromancy, 1847, Paintings: Oil on Canvas
Harassment doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it whispers. Sometimes it laughs. And sometimes it just watches to see if you’ll flinch...
Fish outta water....
We need more walkable cities. I am so tired of my transportation turning to aquatic life. It’s so inconvenient.
If you’re wondering if it ‘counts’ as harassment...that’s the problem
Some things you carry.
Some things carry you.
Ba Ghi Ri E De, Pueblo Indian woman carrying a water pot on her head. - Porter - 1907
“You’re overreacting.” Me, about to liberate the galaxy AND the breakroom.
You’re not weak for staying silent. You’re calculating risk in a world that punishes honesty.
If you're considering going public read this.
“I'ma keep running 'cause a winner don't quit on themselves.”
“I always knew the world moves on.
I just didn’t know it would go without me.”
Therapist: How's work going?
Me:
