Assumptions
“Sorry, but could you open my bottle of water again? I’ll try not to drop the lid this time.”
I was at an event recently with my husband, and a group of people I didn’t know. I struggled to open the bottles of water, and when my husband did help me, I kept dropping the lid. He kindly picked it up each time.
To anyone watching, it may have looked like I was being lazy. It might have appeared that I was perfectly capable of opening my own bottle and picking up the cap myself but what people couldn’t see was that I was still recovering from two broken fingers, and a fracture in one of my vertebrae. I couldn’t grip properly with my fingers, and I’d been advised not to bend over because of my back. On the outside, I looked completely fine.
That moment made me think about how often we make assumptions about people. We see someone and quickly form a story in our minds about who they are, what they’re doing, and why, but the truth is, we rarely know the full story.
Have you ever seen someone driving an expensive car and assumed they must have plenty of money? Perhaps they’re actually under financial pressure and trying to keep up with expectations.
Or what about someone wearing tracksuit pants to an event? It might be easy to assume they don’t care about appearances, when in reality they may simply be choosing comfort or managing a health condition.
Whether we realise it or not, we all make assumptions. They’re shaped by our past experiences, the media we consume, and the messages society sends us about how people “should” look or behave.
The challenge is not that assumptions happen but that we often believe them without question.
What if, instead of judging, we paused. The next time you find yourself judging someone, gently ask yourself, “ Do I really know their story, or is this just a story I’ve created in my mind?”
A little curiosity and compassion can go a long way, and sometimes, the kindest thing we can do is offer a small act of help, or simply a smile, without needing to know the whole story.
The truth is that often, the battles people are facing are the ones we can’t see.
