Well, That Was Awkward...

It is interesting, at least to me, the sort of assumptions people make in conversation with acquaintances. I say acquaintances because these conversations are usually between people who have met, perhaps once before, but are not good friends.

For example, at the pool party I was at last night, thunder was heard about 5 minutes before everybody's parents showed up. This was no big deal, because everyone was done with swimming anyway, but everyone did have to huddle under the porch or go inside.

During this period of utter and total boredom, the topic of the weekend came up, as it always does with high schoolers, and one girl complained of not being able to finish a swim meet due to storm.  She took the trouble of explaining to me that every time you hear thunder, you have to stay out of the pool for 30 minutes. I informed her that my meet on Tuesday also had been delayed due to thunder and I felt much the same way about that.

She expressed surprise at not knowing that I swam, a familiar occurrence with me. Anyhoo, as swimmers inevitably do, she asked for my times. I casually gave her the usual lineup of events used for comparison between swimmers. After hearing me out, and asking if I was serious, she told me I was "really fast." I said that I had been told that before, but really thought that I needed to work harder in practice and focus more. For me, it was no big deal, because I don't really care if people think I'm great or not. (I'm not.) All I want is to be remembered, and that doesn't take greatness. Which is a good think, because greatness takes work, and I'm lazy. But she was clearly embarrassed at her faulty assumption, so I laughed it off and asked if she was going to the city meet, thus turning the conversation away from myself. 

But that conversation got me thinking. How often do I make assumptions of a similar nature? How often have I looked at somebody and said, "Well they clearly don't do sports," and then later learned that they bat cleanup, or play goalkeeper, or man the point for the basketball team. On the topic of ball, how many times have I assumed that the people I play basketball with at the Y are eating well tonight? Have I ever sat down and thought about what a "gated" community really means -- and what it meant that we were having a church party there?*

Obviously none of these assumptions or ignorances are anywhere near the slight offense I took last night. I have no real misconceptions about my own accomplishments, and I readily admit to my own laziness. But it did annoy a little bit that I had been condescendingly informed of how a swim meet works, when I have swum in over 100 meets in my life.

What assumptions do you make in your daily life that may be annoying somebody --  or worse? How often have you found out?

Cheers,

Isaac

*I am by no means insinuating that everybody in [our town in the Deep South] is racist, or even that anyone at said party is prejudiced, and I applaud the champions of civil rights that [said town] can claim an association with. But inequality is a valid problem even today, and sometimes a question begs asking.