Wednesday, January 14, 2009

A Thank You and A Story

I wanted to write a quick post to say thank you to everyone who posted a comment or emailed me concerning Anonymous. (If you missed what happened read this, then know that some rude woman gave me crap for it, thinking I'd done it to punish Jeremy-which it totally wasn't a punishment, then read this.) Y'all are great friends and since some of you were worried that my feelings might have been hurt from her comments, I'd like to let you know that I'm fine. I mostly found her amusing. Rude, but amusing.

The last couple days I've been thinking about my personal attitude toward people who are rude. I've always thought of myself as someone who just took the rudeness and fumed quietly. I've recently realized that I'm not. Nor have I ever been. If it's someone I care about, like friend I think I might be more likely to just let it slide, but even then I can't say that with certainty. I really do think I am most likely to react with a bite.

The first time I can think of when someone was point blank rude to me was in sixth grade. Again, I thought the situation was funny and I wasn't actually offended at all. The "popular athletic" girl in my class (Shelley) and the "wanna be popular" girl in my class (Vanessa) were talking during recess. They were sitting on the desks inside our classroom portable while another girl, sweet, kind, never missed a day of school in her life Lindsay sat and watched.

I was sitting in the doorway reading Nancy Drew.

Vanessa was trying to ascertain who she should like so she could be as popular as Shelley and was listing a few people in our class to see if Shelley liked them or not. With each name Shelley had either given a "yes" or "I guess so" answer.

Then Vanessa looked at Lindsay and asked, "What about Lindsay?" Shelley looked at Lindsay. She sized her up and finally declared, "I guess so. Who doesn't like Lindsay?" And she was right. No one dared not like Lindsay. She'd cry. And she was so little and nice to everyone.

Then Vanessa spotted me.

The loner bookworm who didn't ever talk.

"Do you like Kellie?"

Shelley looked right at me, "No. I don't like Kellie."

It looked like Lindsay was going to cry. She looked at me and asked me with tears in her eyes, "Kellie, are you ok?"

I just laughed and said, "Yeah. I don't like Shelley, either," and then I went back to my book.

I was honestly ok. And I honestly hadn't liked Shelley. I'd always thought she and Vanessa were full of themselves and I didn't care for them. Vanessa looked a little shocked. I didn't bother to check out Shelley's reaction, I wanted to get back to my book.


I think I've always been like this. Rude people bug me if they are rude to others but humor me if they are rude to me. So I just bite back and let them know what I think of them.

So no worried Anonymous. You're far enough away that you don't have to worry about me biting you for reals. I broke your World's Best Mom mug though. Sorry.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah if only I had the guts like you did in elementary school. I would say something stupid or walk away and go cry.

JerieH said...

Wow, I fell behind in my blogging and I missed this whole episode! I am so sorry you had such a rude reader - if she was that upset, she should have stopped reading your blog. Besides we all do stuff that we are sorry for latter... Bravo to you for sharing!

JerieH said...

Wow, I fell behind in my blogging and I missed this whole episode! I am so sorry you had such a rude reader - if she was that upset, she should have stopped reading your blog. Besides we all do stuff that we are sorry for latter... Bravo to you for sharing!

sara said...

I've never understood why people feel like because it's the cyber world they can be as rude as possible. I can guarantee that person would never have the guts to say something like that in person. Therefore, not someone who I'd give an ounce of credence to. I think you handled it well.