It’s a term I’ve heard more recently in the last few years to refer to ways people neatly package up their intense feelings or emotions away from the world in order to focus on tasks at hand and function somewhat “normally.” I heard it even more recently, today, in a discussion where it was brought up how we, as black women, have to compartmentalize during these incredibly stressful times in order to keep functioning. At first I felt proud of what that meant. It meant I was able to channel my emotions in a way that wouldn’t interfere with work and let them out when I had time and space to do so, be it on the weekends or taking time off. Then I thought about it deeper and it made me furious to think that is something to be proud of and even more so to be acceptable in society. Humans should NOT be compartmentalizing shit to keep working.