NaBloPoMo: On speaking your mind

About four years ago, when we'd lived in Gainesville only a few months, I made an appointment with a... erm... lady doctor for a checkup. Since I was a new patient, she had a number of basic questions for me, starting with occupation. When I told her I was a graduate student working towards my PhD, she snorted and said, "well, if you think that's best!" I smiled politely and decided to give her the benefit of the doubt; she probably thought she was being clever, not rude. Ahem. When she asked my age (26 at the time), she also asked if John and I had kids yet. I told her we didn't and her eyebrows shot up. She then went on to lecture me that we should start having kids if we ever wanted them, that my chances were slip-slip-slipping away (while, it went without saying, I wasted my time in graduate school), and she suggested I start taking folic acid in preparation.

What strikes me now, years after the incident, is that I didn't say anything to this woman. At the time, I decided not to make an issue of it because she probably thought she was being helpful. But I think it's important to speak your mind when you feel strongly about something. In this case, I feel strongly about my right to decide if and when I want children, and this woman-- whether she knew it or not-- was badgering me. So why didn't I speak up? Was it shock? Social etiquette? Shyness? It still puzzles me.