Thought Nuggets
Back to my regular life which includes driving with Yessa to her ASL class. I needed to follow up with parking services since we hadn’t heard anything back from them about where to park nor received our parking sticker.
Turns out in this day and age you don’t need a sticker. We registered the car and that’s all they need. We can park in any student lot, at any time.
I’m slightly embarrassed that I did share a “back in my day” moment with the woman in parking services who looked about my age. Back in my day we had to wait in line for the stickers and there was an actual sticker and you had an assigned parking lot where you had to park. This way is so much easier!
That did turn me to pondering that this system is possible because NY requires a front and back license plate. If it didn’t, you could evade the system for a fair amount of time by backing in up against another car. In TN, which only had a rear license plate, I’m not sure the system works. And I do know lots of schools there required the parking sticker anyway.
The next thought nugget was how many potential connections are lost due to headphones and ear buds. The vast majority of students I walk by on campus are wearing them. If they made eye contact I still said hello and they responded, but lots of them don’t make eye contact.
My perspective is skewed by my extroversion. I want to have a conversation with all these people and hear their stories. I assume that’s not the case for introverts. Having a layer of aural protection would be a blessing.
Finally, speaking of assumptions. I had two different moments of swift reminders that you don’t know people until you know them.
I walked by a young man who was watching a video, without ear buds on. I had said “good morning” to him earlier in the day and he didn’t look up from his video to acknowledge me during this second passing.
I made all sorts of assumptions about what the video would be based on how he looked…I was wrong. It was a motivational video about getting the best from yourself and life.
The second time it happened today, same scenario but my assumptions and stereotypes were even more embedded. Thirty-ish year old white man, tattoos, dyed hair, smoking a cigarette… watching a video about Jesus as the savior.
We never, ever know what someone else is going through, growing through. The least I can do is assume the best.
What a gift today is.
