Story story

Story time! Ya’ll know I love telling stories 🙂

So yesterday, I got back from a trip, which was exceedingly exhausting and I just wanted to go home and sleep. I got off the bus and I was waiting for another bus that would drop me off close to my house. The time for the bus to arrive came, passed, and still no bus. I was like, ya’ll don’t expect me to walk home, do you?? (Cause my house is like 25 minutes’ walk from where I was at the time)

So anyways, after much back and forth in my spirit (I did not want to start walking and the bus would drive past!), I decided to walk. I started walking and I saw a woman in the distance, this woman looked like she wanted to ask for help, and I was not in the mood to help anyone, but I could not just turn away, lol that would probably have come across as rude! Anyways, I got to her, we talked,  and I found out that she was lost and needed directions. I happened to be going in the same way that she was meant to be heading, so I told her I’d walk with her cause describing the place would be a bit difficult.

So we started talking and she asked me what I do, and I told her I was doing a PhD. When I said this, she did not respond. did I mention that she was Polish? Anyways, so when she kept quite I went on to say I was doing research and then, I realised my error.

She felt a bit insulted because she thought, that I thought because she was polish she did not understand what a PhD was, which really was not the issue.  She went on to say to me, that she had done her doctoral studies and was there for a conference. (Which for some reason escaped me, even though she had mentioned the conference earlier!) I was mortified (I’m not even going to lie!) and I instantly apologised to her, I actually felt really bad covers face. Long story short, we got over that little hitch, talked and I walked her to her place. She wished the best and actually wished me a lot of good things which made me smile.

Why did I share this story? Well, cause there are lots of lessons to be learnt. As a black woman living in Ireland, I have always been on the receiving end of people assuming I do not know something because I am black or assuming I know something because I am black. And in as much as I’m not one to get easily offended at things like that, I realised yesterday how easy it is to do that to someone. Which leads me to the point; never make assumptions. Most times assumptions do not do too much harm, but they can ruin friendships, relationships, network etc. and you might not know it, but this world is made up of networks of people and it is how we thrive.

The other thing I’d like to point out is, sometimes, the things we want even though they aren’t bad might stop us from experiencing other things. Like I did not want to walk at all. I would have taken the bus if it had shown up, and even though I prayed that it would be there, it was not. If I had taken the bus though, I would have missed the interesting encounter I had with the Polish woman. Looking glad, I’m glad I didn’t get the bus. I actually enjoyed talking to her and walking with her.

So yea, I don’t have a summary for today’s post. But I do hope you enjoyed it and learnt something from it!  If you haven’t taken the poll from the last post please do so!!! 🙂

Thank you for reading today\’s post! I look forward to hearing back from you