On Feeling Marginalized

It can happen in the subtlest ways.
The invitation that never comes.
The conversation during which your voice is talked over.
The group that forms just outside your reach, laughing, closing ranks as if to make sure you remain on the outside.

Marginalization isn’t always loud. More often, it’s quiet and insidious, whispered between gestures and silences.

It leaves you questioning yourself: Did I imagine that slight? Was that really meant to exclude me? Am I too sensitive?

But here’s the truth: when others treat us as though we’re less-than, it leaves a mark. Even if they don’t recognize it, we feel it deeply. Being dismissed, ignored, or underestimated erodes our sense of belonging.

And belonging—true belonging—is a human need.

When others make us feel marginalized, we can shrink. Or we can stand taller, choosing to affirm our own worth even in the face of their blindness. We can also recognize that their behavior says more about them—their fears, their insecurities—than it does about our value.

It doesn’t erase the sting. But remembering this can keep us from carrying the weight of someone else’s smallness.

Because no one gets to define our place, our value, our worth—except us.

It’s good to remember that.

And it’s also good to be aware of when others might feel marginalized and make a point of including them.

Because that’s what being human (and kind) is all about.