I was walking by my dad today and he sparked a conversation out of the blue, asking me what I do to keep myself safe while drinking in public and what I thought about it/my experience with it since it's obviously different from his. I told him a bit about the precautions I take and how I always have to be on my guard, etc. and he just sat there and listened to what I had to say and said he felt sorry that it was that way for me, which felt nice. Then we ended up having an in-depth conversation about a lot of things that concern sex/gender, and we see pretty much 100% eye-to-eye on everything. And at one point, he said that whenever he hears about shitty stuff happening in the world, it's his first instinct to want to run to me and shield me as his daughter (especially since I'm the youngest out of my siblings), but he also wants me to stand strong as my own person.

I don't know, it just hit me really hard because he does see me as the strong, capable person I am but he also realizes that I'm at a biological disadvantage and there are some situations where there's little I can do to help myself, and he just made it explicit that especially in situations like that, he'll always have my back. Which I never doubted in the first place. But it was exactly what I needed right now. To be taken care of but not infantilized. Especially at a time right now when there's some troubling shit going on in our family and I've been focusing on making sure everyone else is alright but haven't made sure that I'm alright. I do need support right now (even if it isn't support in the way that he worded it initially), and I'm glad I got a reminder that I do have that support and all I have to do is ask.