They needed a failure to measure themselves against.

They needed a bottom to their hierarchy.

And a person who needs you to be a certain way will not be moved by evidence that you are not, because the evidence threatens something they depend on.

That is why my scholarship, my honors, my career — all the proofs I kept presenting — bounced off them unheard.

I was offering facts to people who did not have a factual problem.

They had a need, and my smallness met it, and no amount of contrary evidence could dislodge a belief that was doing that much work for them.