There are little things like these that bother me a lot. They are nothing extremely significant per se, but just little naggings that stay with me for a long time. I hardly forget them. I was at sks bookshop today. I picked out two books and headed to the cashier to pay. Upon paying, the lady asked me “full time?”. I did not understand and asked her what she meant. She was pretty vague about it and said “serving in church…”. In that moment, I somehow understood as serving in church and going to church regularly, like “full time church goer” in that sense and said very confidently, “yes!”. She then proceeded to give me an extra discount for the things that I was buying. I wondered why and made a mental note to bring it up to the friend I was with. The conversation went something along the lines of her commenting that I was very young to be serving and that I looked like I was still schooling. I said something like yeah I am, but I still serve. Only upon walking away from the cashier did I realize she meant to ask me if I was serving full time in church, as in a pastor or a staff in the ministry. I contemplated going back to inform her that I had misunderstood her, but my friend was waiting and the sheer “awkwardity” (self-invented word) of bringing it up persuaded me against it. So, I left the shop, with a nagging disturbance tugging at my heart, or whatever it tugs at.
This incident led me to think of the time where my friends and I went for a movie. We had just graduated and the ticket discount was only for students. We were given the discount even though they checked our ICs. Most of us gladly accepted it. Then there was this one friend, J, who insisted that it was not right for us to accept the discount, on the basis that we were not students anymore (even though we had JUST graduated). I just brushed it off. Perhaps, I now understand what he means, and why he felt disturbed.
As I’ve said, these aren’t huge things that make a big deal. But somehow, they do bother me once in a while.
