Hanging by a moment...
October 13, 2005 @ 02:33 AMThis is not a NEW post. It is something I wrote a while ago. But I re-read it recently and thought I should post it here:
Cringe
Do you have situations in life, things that have
happened in the past, that still pop up in your mind once in a while
and make you cringe? Things where you said or did something that was
entirely misunderstood, or perhaps wasn’t but in hindsight, was just
plain stupid? Why is it these things continue to haunt us?
There
are two things in particular that pop immediately to mind for me, so in
the interest of mental purging, I will explain one of them to you now.
Firstly,
5 years ago I was just beginning my first year at a new university. I
wasn’t a freshman, I was a transfer student, but I didn’t know anyone
there of course. I’ve always been a quiet person, even a little shy,
but much more so back then. Anyway, we were having a little
‘get-to-know-everyone’ session in my dorm lobby. About 50 people were
there. This was the chance that everyone had to get to know you for the
first time… Going around the circle, we were each to explain
ourselves in a few short sentences. You all know the drill. My time
came and went uneventfully, thankfully.
Here’s where it got weird.
About
10 people later, some girl in the middle of her explanation made a
completely derogatory remark about the people who live in the
particular town I lived in. In trying to defend myself, I made a loud,
snobby comment right back to her. Complete silence. A couple random
chuckles. After what felt like an eternity, she continued with her
story. Upon reflection later that night, I had realized that this girl
had not said what I thought she’d said. She hadn’t said anything close
to it. In fact, she was just explaining where she was from. From
everyone else’s viewpoint, there would have been absolutely NO
connection to what she had just said and me, let alone from her
statement to what I said to her. It would have appeared as if I’d just
randomly blurted out what – out of the context I had believed -
would’ve been extremely insensitive and rude.
I know that the next day, nobody thought about that. Nobody to this day would probably remember that incident.
But I do. And to this day, when that thought enters my mind, I cringe.—-
As a follow up, one of my favorite quotes is from Dr. Phil, who said: "You wouldn’t worry so much about what people thought about you if you knew how seldom they did."