Be Curious, Meat Sauce

People have underestimated me my entire life, and for years, I never understood why. It used to really bother me. Then one day, while watching my favorite television show, I heard a quote attributed to Walt Whitman. It was stated plainly, and it made me sit right up: “Be curious, not judgmental.”

I like that.

So the next day, I was in my car driving to work, and all of a sudden, it hit me: many of the people who had belittled me, and some who still do, were never really curious about me. They thought they had me all figured out. So they judged me. They did not check their own biases. And they judged anyone who didn’t agree with them.

That was when I realized something important: their underestimating me had very little to do with who I actually was.

Because if they had been curious, they would have asked questions. Questions like, “Have you done a lot of research, Amy?”

To which I would have answered, “Yes indeed. For five years. Two master’s degrees — one in Business Administration and one in Counseling.” Meat sauce.