Learning to Hold My Own Voice

There’s a strange thing that happens sometimes — you start a sentence, only to have someone cut in halfway through. It’s not always mean-spirited. Sometimes it’s excitement. Sometimes it’s habit. But over time, it chips away at something.

I’ve always been a quiet talker. The kind of person who thinks before she speaks, who listens more than she jumps in. But somewhere along the way, I started noticing how often I just… stop talking. Mid-thought. Mid-feeling. As if I unconsciously decided, “Never mind. It’s not that important.”

It’s not that I don’t want to speak. I just sometimes feel like I don’t have space.

The kitchen table, the Zoom call, even casual conversation with a friend — I find myself navigating when to speak up without disrupting the rhythm. But what happens when no one leaves a pause for you? Do you wait forever, or do you learn to take space?

The other day, I read an article that put words to this feeling in a way I hadn’t seen before.
It’s called How to Stop People from Interrupting — and while the title sounds assertive, the content was thoughtful, gentle, and deeply relatable. Not a battle plan, but a guide for how to quietly reclaim your own voice. I found myself nodding the whole way through.

One part that really stuck with me was this idea: If you constantly allow your voice to be cut off, eventually even you stop believing it matters. That hit me in a way I didn’t expect. Not with shame, but with recognition.

Because it’s not just about the conversations at dinner. It’s about how we carry ourselves in the world. Whether we believe our words have weight. Whether we believe we’re worth hearing.

I’m not planning on becoming loud or combative. That’s just not me. But I am learning — slowly, kindly — to hold my space. To pause and finish my thought, even if someone talks over me. To return to what I was saying. To let my voice exist without apologizing for it.

It’s a quiet kind of power. And I think there’s room for it.

So if you’ve ever felt like you trail off too often, or that people talk over you more than they realize — know that you’re not alone. And maybe take a few minutes to read that article. It helped me think about things differently, and it might do the same for you.

We all deserve to be heard — even in our softest moments.

— Rachel