Follow Up #1 on the Kindness Challenge and Self Checkout Guidelines

Here it is, my first observation of my “Kindness Challenge”. See reader, I didn’t send you off to do this challenge on your own. I have been a participant as well. And oh what I found. I hope that if you have participated, you learned some eye opening lessons or learned that you are, in fact, just as kind as you thought you were. This is not what I learned. Ugh.

This challenge required me to constantly remind myself that the people I was dealing with may “only have until midnight”. This seriously became a chant for me under my breath in a few instances. When I wanted to strangle someone, the chant got a bit louder and more frantic, I noticed. For instance, in Walmart. For some reason, I had the most challenges in Walmart and on the road (this part is NOT surprising if you’ve ever been brave enough to ride with me).



I went to the mountains camping, and the Walmart superstore is a bit of a savior in those parts. Kind of like out West, when you feel like you’ve been driving so far without seeing anything that when that glorious, non descript building rises up on the horizon, you hear angels. You never know when you’ll need Miley Cyrus sweatpants out West. Just saying.

So there I was, getting yelled at. In Walmart. In the self checkout line. Now, I have serious issues with self-checkout etiquette. Not that I don’t understand the etiquette, it’s that half of the population doesn’t. That is, of course, the half that I am NOT on. I don’t quite understand why no one makes a diagram, or a white board to hang over the self checkout area, like they do with football plays. “O” for the player (shopper), “X” for the register and then lines and arrows showing these people where to go. You’re “O” goes to your “X”, and you stay out of my line with an arrow. Got that? Simple. Or so I thought.



So here is this mountain woman, who decided that she doesn’t like that I’ve formed one master line, versus a line at each individual register. I figure the person who has been waiting the longest (me) goes to the next available register. Otherwise it’s luck of the draw. This leads to the following frantic thoughts: Which register is moving the fastest? Those people have a couple of items, but they look like check writers…I’m not picking that line! Uh-oh, that woman is gripping 16,000 coupons. Not going to that register… So, you see, you can never be sure. One master line just makes the most sense. This girl did not agree, but what really grates on me is that instead of saying something directly to me, she instead rants loudly to her boyfriend. Over and over again, with her hysterical voice getting louder with each second that I don’t pay her any attention and clearly was not allowing her to go first. Had she approached me directly, I would have still told her she was wrong but at least it would have been resolved and done. But she proceeded to rant, and then move onto name calling. This is when I began to feel the heat roll up my chest, to my neck, to my face and almost blow the top off of my head. There’s no secret that I don’t have the longest fuse, and my temper has always been a bit of an issue. And for this reason, I am conducting this challenge. So instead of turning and reaming her out in epic fashion, I began to coach myself. And chant crazily to myself. At this point, I think she began to think I was indeed crazier then she is, and let it go.

And I know it’s not something to be proud of, that I didn’t strangle this woman in Walmart. But you know, it’s the small victories like not getting carted off in a police car from a Walmart while your children look on from the car.