Lauren+Davis

Journal 1

I recently experienced a paradigm shift during a Wal-Mart run with some of my friends from college. We were stocking up for an all-nighter with some movies and junk food, because we were suffering from home sickness believed to be cause by the pressures of our first semester of college. On the short drive there, we were listening to some music and having casual conversation, there was no recognition of anything bad that could ever happen in our lives. While parking the car, the driver was being extremely careful not to hit a pedestrian and she was being teased for driving like a grandma. As we entered the store, the greeter said hello to us and we waved back to be polite, unaware of what was about to happen.

We began the quest for the ultimate junk food in the ice cream isle, but then my friend jokingly said to me that we were not depressed enough for food as drastic as ice cream. This comment, to me, seemed completely harmless. The woman shopping near us overheard my friend's statement and replied, "You girls are nowhere near depressed. My husband is dying of cancer and he is depressed, so please don't think that you have a hard life." After hta her son gently pulled her anongm like he was embarrassed by her.

At that moment, I realized that we need to be more sensitive to other people's feelings and we have to understand that there are more and most likely more difficult things going on in other people's lives. these terrible things, such as cancer, happen to regular people. You could not tell by looking at the lay that she was suffering from the effects of cancer. From that moment on, I always think about what I say before I say it. Your words could really hurt someone without you even knowing it. I thank that woman for pointing out our shallowness, if not for her my friends and I would not be as appreciative of other people's feelings and experiences as we are now.