Volume

SAMIRA: They keep complaining that I'm too loud.

GRACE: Why?

SAMIRA: I don't know. Because I get animated when I'm excited?

GRACE: That seems wrong.

SAMIRA: Stoic Midwesterners I guess.

GRACE: What about your brown side?

SAMIRA: Please, they're almost more conservative.

GRACE: I thought Indians were loud and boisterous. Music and dancing and such.

SAMIRA: Punjabis, not Tamilians. Tamilians are quiet, our dancing in controlled.

GRACE: Oh that sucks. Well just don't listen to them.

SAMIRA: I try, but they've been saying this my entire life!

GRACE: What is that saying about quiet women...

SAMIRA: I don't think there's a saying.

GRACE: About them not making history or something.

SAMIRA: That's well-behaved women.

GRACE: Well-behaved, quiet, same thing.

SAMIRA: Not really.

GRACE: Mostly.

SAMIRA: I guess.

GRACE: Trust me.

SAMIRA: Fine.

GRACE: Look, you're fine. So you can get loud sometimes so what. It's better than being even-keeled all the time. At least you can show some emotional range. Always being quiet is boring.

SAMIRA: I just feel like it's affecting how I present myself. 

GRACE: In what way.

SAMIRA: Like I'm not assertive enough, or I can't get my voice heard. I work with such loud people. They always dominate the conversation. 

GRACE: Ok, now that's a different conversation.

SAMIRA: No it's not.

GRACE: If you want to be loud, be loud. Ignore what your family's said in the past. They come from a different time.

SAMIRA: And place.

GRACE: Exactly.

SAMIRA: It's like they never get excited about anything.

GRACE: Wouldn't it be sad to live like that.

SAMIRA: Yes.

GRACE: So there you go.