tl;dr at the bottom
Somewhere around 15 years ago I was working in a chicken joint, similar to KFC. I had a customer come in, a young black woman with three kids. She looked like a complete mess, her hair was disheveled, her clothes were a little dirty, her eyes were red and blood shot, and she seemed confused and not entirely with it. Also she had something dried and caked and white at the corner of her mouth, going down to the bottom of her chin
A lot of you have already figured out her situation from that brief description. But I didn't being an ignorant/inexperienced 15 year old, I honestly believed she was on drugs...or a prostitute. I thought the disheveled hair, the red eyes, the white crap at the corner of her mouth was due to drugs, like the white stuff was left over residue that she was simply to baked to wipe away. As for the prostitute thing, I thought the white stuff...I thought it might have been semen from a "John" that she was simply to wasted on drugs to realize she still had some on her.
15 or so years later, I am a father of 2 boys, and I also work a full time job. Most of the time I am exhausted, when I am not working one of my ridiculous shifts(I work 1st, 2nd, and 3rd shift at some point through the whole week) I am tending to my children. My hair is usually disheveled, my eyes are usually red and blood shot, and I often suffer from what my doctor calls "brain fog". Brain fog is basically confusion, your brain just has a hard time processing information, and you seem to just shut down for a few seconds at a time. It is commonly caused by a lack of sleep. It is a lot like simply being tired, but the effects are far worse, and take 2 weeks of normal sleep to recover from.
Some time ago I was given a break from work and my kids for a day, and I spent almost the entire time sleeping. When I woke up I went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and saw it. I had dried, cakey, white crap all over my mouth and chin(go ahead get the blowjob jokes out of the way). It was drool, not just any drool, but the kind of drool you only get from sleeping 16 hours straight in a very deep and very restorative sleep. I suddenly flashed back to that young woman, and realized she wasn't any of those horrible things I thought she might have been.
She was just a hard working single mother, doing the best she can with the situation she had. It might have taken 15 years, but I have an incredible amount of respect for her. Of course, I feel terrible for misjudging her so damn completely.
tl;dr I completely misjudge a person's situation, and it took me 15 years to realize it.
Anyone else have a situation like this, where you completely and damningly misjudge a person/situation?
Somewhere around 15 years ago I was working in a chicken joint, similar to KFC. I had a customer come in, a young black woman with three kids. She looked like a complete mess, her hair was disheveled, her clothes were a little dirty, her eyes were red and blood shot, and she seemed confused and not entirely with it. Also she had something dried and caked and white at the corner of her mouth, going down to the bottom of her chin
A lot of you have already figured out her situation from that brief description. But I didn't being an ignorant/inexperienced 15 year old, I honestly believed she was on drugs...or a prostitute. I thought the disheveled hair, the red eyes, the white crap at the corner of her mouth was due to drugs, like the white stuff was left over residue that she was simply to baked to wipe away. As for the prostitute thing, I thought the white stuff...I thought it might have been semen from a "John" that she was simply to wasted on drugs to realize she still had some on her.
15 or so years later, I am a father of 2 boys, and I also work a full time job. Most of the time I am exhausted, when I am not working one of my ridiculous shifts(I work 1st, 2nd, and 3rd shift at some point through the whole week) I am tending to my children. My hair is usually disheveled, my eyes are usually red and blood shot, and I often suffer from what my doctor calls "brain fog". Brain fog is basically confusion, your brain just has a hard time processing information, and you seem to just shut down for a few seconds at a time. It is commonly caused by a lack of sleep. It is a lot like simply being tired, but the effects are far worse, and take 2 weeks of normal sleep to recover from.
Some time ago I was given a break from work and my kids for a day, and I spent almost the entire time sleeping. When I woke up I went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and saw it. I had dried, cakey, white crap all over my mouth and chin(go ahead get the blowjob jokes out of the way). It was drool, not just any drool, but the kind of drool you only get from sleeping 16 hours straight in a very deep and very restorative sleep. I suddenly flashed back to that young woman, and realized she wasn't any of those horrible things I thought she might have been.
She was just a hard working single mother, doing the best she can with the situation she had. It might have taken 15 years, but I have an incredible amount of respect for her. Of course, I feel terrible for misjudging her so damn completely.
tl;dr I completely misjudge a person's situation, and it took me 15 years to realize it.
Anyone else have a situation like this, where you completely and damningly misjudge a person/situation?