Little miss hottie, that guy is NOT hitting on you!

My daily experiences tend to make me consider a thing or two about life. 

Today, I went to a store to replace the ink for my printer. The printer is fairly new and I hadn't any idea where the cartridges are lodged, so the entire printer came with me to the store. The intention was to buy the new cartridges and ask the attendant to show me how to change them. I gotta say, mission accomplished.

The attendant was very polite and nice and talked me through changing the cartridge and allowed me do it myself, kinna like a good teacher would.

Now, this attendant is one who I have met several times before and he has helped me pick out quite a number of things. So, even though we didn't know each other's names, we weren't total strangers. Naturally, spending all that time, learning about the kind of cartridge my printer uses, the reason for the price difference and why a black cartridge wouldn't work in the coloured dock, he and I talked a lot and shared a good number of laughs (plus I was rather excited to learn how to do this - I get excited about learning things *shrug*). As the conversation came to an end, he asked for my name and told me how the service he just rendered should ideally come at a financial cost but he was doing it for free for me. I said thank you. As I left, I asked for his name as well, we shook hands and he asked me to come by and visit him, even if I didn't want to buy anything.

As I left, I said to my assistant "In this guys mind now, he has toasted me" and she said "What if he just likes you and wants to be friends?"....and I paused.

I realised that I had totally read a meaning into something that really was, 1st of all, a show of kindness and human regard. I not only read meaning and assumed, but had also concluded (in my mind) on how to make sure I shove his intentions in his face (I had decided I was certainly not going to stop by to say hi and the next time I came to buy something, I would deliberately not go to him for assistance). I then thought about how often I had made assumptions about people's intentions towards me and reacted, treating them in the ways I thought appropriate because of what I assumed. I considered how I have consistently talked about not judging people and how these assumptions I had made about people is probably akin to judging them. Then I thought about how many people like me exist. I specifically thought about all the girls who strut their stuff, walking away from guys who had tried to start a conversation with them because they thought the guy was hitting on them. I considered the number of good friends that one might have walked away from because one thought that one was being hit on.

On that note, I say unto you (ladies), let the person (guy or girl) make their intentions clear before you assume and react. Until they do, treat them all as people who you have met, who could become friends.

And you (men), don't be doing cryptic things. Do not also misinterpret a person's (girl or guy) friendliness for anything more than it is...just friendliness.

Everyday, I try to be a better person. The realisation today, has given me one more thing to try at. I hope you try too.