Disclosure: In a few years, I’ll qualify for AARP membership, senior discounts, etc. So I might be almost twice your age, t0o.

Your post connects both with who I was earlier in my professional life.

In one of my previous careers, I was fortunate to have a fast climb up the corporate ladder. That put me in many conference rooms, sitting across from some older guy applying Old World meeting tactics. Him ignoring who I was and immediately trying to dominate the conversation. Me not understanding his behavior as a sign of stunted emotional intelligence and inflated ego. Instead, feeling inadequate because I had no supposedly equally smart comebacks. No one I worked with ever mentioned these gender and power dynamics. I was supposed to pretend they didn’t exist. So I assumed that I was lacking as a person. These kinds of experiences ate at me for years. Erasing that false image, nurturing and believing in myself has been some of the hardest work to do.

So, good for you for having the courage to engage yourself about that moment and learn from it. Especially when you’re younger. I’ve seen many professional women get ground down, resentful and apathetic from years of silent anguish about wrongly perceived deficits arising from these kinds of fleeting work encounters.

The self-awareness you’ve gained from this is one of the most powerful and precious gifts you’ll own.