This. Is. Fucking. BRILLIANT!!!

I've spent so much of my life apologizing unnecessarily, including in instances when it should rightfully have been the other party apologizing, and for what? Simply due to the programming I internalized growing up in this society.

I'm blessed in that Marek calls me out on it, and any time he catches me saying "I'm sorry," his usual response is "You're welcome," which serves to make me more aware of how often I do it without thinking.

And I have become far more aware of how often I hear it from other women as well, apologizing without thinking for being close to me in the aisle, when they have every bit as much right to be there as I; are we really apologizing for taking up space? For existing in the first place?

We women are so programmed to take responsibility, even for things we have had nothing whatsoever to do with, to the point that we pick up the yoke by rote, simply because we have become so used to doing so.

No more.