Makingsenseofwhathappened - Makingsenseofwhathappened

To train - not in vain! (Winston, your art is sublime!!)

Aftermetoo

Training

Aftermetoo partnered with the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children (CREVAWC) at Western University on th

Train in vain, O. Winston

“So much of coming to terms with hard things from the past seems to be about believing our own accounts, having our memories confirmed by those who were there and honoured by those who weren’t.” — Sarah Polley, Run Towards the Danger

The Cost of Staying

Sometimes it’s not that you didn’t want the job.

It’s that you wanted it too much. And now you're floating down some corporate river. Toward the wrong end of The Waterfall (TM).

You worked too hard. Put up with too much. Got good at things you never thought you’d be good at. Found your rhythm. Found your people. Maybe even started to believe you belonged there.

And then it changed.

Or maybe it didn’t. Maybe it was always like this and you just finally let yourself admit that the cost was too high.

That staying meant watching someone else get away with it. That staying meant shrinking a little bit each day. That staying meant carrying your own silence like it was professionalism. Like it was maturity. Like it was strength.

But here’s the truth no one wants to put on a poster: Sometimes leaving is the only way to protect yourself.

And that doesn’t mean you failed. It doesn’t mean you weren’t strong enough. It means the place wasn’t safe enough.

And maybe that’s not the ending you deserved, but it’s not the end of your story either (the waterfall).

"They're not harassing you. That’s just how they talk." Oh okay. I’ll just rewire my nervous system so it understands context.

Part of the problem is when you become overwhelmed and burnt out; making any decisions isn’t what helps. People forget that when you get to a place of burn out. The last thing your mind wants to do is make more decisions. It’s burn out, it just wants to rest and not have to constantly choose this or that.

You are not imagining it. If something feels off, it probably is. Doubt is part of the pattern. So is denial.

You get punished twice — once for what happened, and again for how you react.