People surprise you.
And when I say "you," I mean me. I not even going to pretend to speak metaphorically. Sometimes I think that I have people all figured out. That each one of them belongs in a designated box or folder in my mind, filed by a variety of characteristics; gender, religion, hair color, background, etc. And sometimes I believe that I am able to understand how people will function based upon past reactions or one of the previous characteristics. In some ways I build myself up to be God; believing in my abilities to predict the future and understanding the past with ease. I convince myself that I, one that has little experience in this world, and amongst people have the ability to know how they will react. I generate scenarios in my mind where people are thrown into situations, like gladiators in the Colosseum and I, the great and powerful Caesar, will be able to know which player will win, or what beast they might overcome.
However, I am not Julius Cesar. And I do not understand people.
I work in an office as the front desk receptionist, eight hours a day, five days a week. If I'm not talking on the phone, I am usually helping and/or directing people to where they need to go and telling them who they need to talk to. Everyone that comes into the office has to pass by my desk. Its probably the best job for an extrovert.
Yesterday, one of the guys from Information Services came into the office to assist my boss with her computer. Printer problems, I suppose. Anyway, I had joked around with him before, teasing him about having a "first world problem," or something of that likeness before, and since then, we had developed a somewhat lighthearted relationship usually peppered with sarcasm or jokes. When I saw him walk in the front door and plop his elbows on my counter, I prepared myself to react to his expected sarcastic greeting. So, you can imagine my surprise when, instead of reprimanding me for the condition of the counter, he said, "Hey, you have nice hair today."
I was completely speechless. I couldn't even mutter "thank you," but only sat there, with my hands politely folded and my jaw, loose on it's hinges. He then smiled and walked over to another worker's desk, completely unaware of what he had just done.
Now, granted, I don't know this kid hardly at all. But I did believe (up until yesterday) that I had him figured out; that from here on, his behaviors would all be equal in demeanor and content of conversation. Oh, but how I was wrong. Once again, I believed I possessed the power to tell the future based upon what I knew to be reality. However, my reality is not necessarily always the true one. I believe you can never completely figure out a person. There will always be something, some aspect of their life that you will never know or understand. At times this can be frustrating, but also exciting. I suppose if everyone acted the way that I would continually guessed them to act, I wouldn't be fascinated by people anymore.
People will surprise you. But this is a good thing.
And when I say "you," I mean me. I not even going to pretend to speak metaphorically. Sometimes I think that I have people all figured out. That each one of them belongs in a designated box or folder in my mind, filed by a variety of characteristics; gender, religion, hair color, background, etc. And sometimes I believe that I am able to understand how people will function based upon past reactions or one of the previous characteristics. In some ways I build myself up to be God; believing in my abilities to predict the future and understanding the past with ease. I convince myself that I, one that has little experience in this world, and amongst people have the ability to know how they will react. I generate scenarios in my mind where people are thrown into situations, like gladiators in the Colosseum and I, the great and powerful Caesar, will be able to know which player will win, or what beast they might overcome.
However, I am not Julius Cesar. And I do not understand people.
I work in an office as the front desk receptionist, eight hours a day, five days a week. If I'm not talking on the phone, I am usually helping and/or directing people to where they need to go and telling them who they need to talk to. Everyone that comes into the office has to pass by my desk. Its probably the best job for an extrovert.
Yesterday, one of the guys from Information Services came into the office to assist my boss with her computer. Printer problems, I suppose. Anyway, I had joked around with him before, teasing him about having a "first world problem," or something of that likeness before, and since then, we had developed a somewhat lighthearted relationship usually peppered with sarcasm or jokes. When I saw him walk in the front door and plop his elbows on my counter, I prepared myself to react to his expected sarcastic greeting. So, you can imagine my surprise when, instead of reprimanding me for the condition of the counter, he said, "Hey, you have nice hair today."
I was completely speechless. I couldn't even mutter "thank you," but only sat there, with my hands politely folded and my jaw, loose on it's hinges. He then smiled and walked over to another worker's desk, completely unaware of what he had just done.
Now, granted, I don't know this kid hardly at all. But I did believe (up until yesterday) that I had him figured out; that from here on, his behaviors would all be equal in demeanor and content of conversation. Oh, but how I was wrong. Once again, I believed I possessed the power to tell the future based upon what I knew to be reality. However, my reality is not necessarily always the true one. I believe you can never completely figure out a person. There will always be something, some aspect of their life that you will never know or understand. At times this can be frustrating, but also exciting. I suppose if everyone acted the way that I would continually guessed them to act, I wouldn't be fascinated by people anymore.
People will surprise you. But this is a good thing.
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