I was more mature than I thought I was.
In order to understand this anecdote, I must provide you with some recent personal history.
I worked for a video store/furniture store/gift shop this fall, called "Hanson's Furniture and Appliance". I know it's a weird combination, but if you've read my past entries you'll understand that I'm from a small town, and if you're from a small town you'll understand businesses that are seemingly unrelated being all smashed together.
What do you think one major perk of working in a video store would be? Free rentals? Yeah, that'd be a great idea. Unfortunately, we didn't get free rentals as employees of Hansons. I thought this was ridiculous. So, I took movies home a couple of times when I closed at night and opened the next morning. No revenue lost. No harm, no foul, right? Wrong.
They found out about this, and fired me. Now, I know what I did was "wrong", but wtf? No warning, no "Hey, don't do this anymore." Just point bland "We're gonna have to let you go."
I was very ashamed at first. I'd never been fired from a job before, and I couldn't imagine how I was going to tell my mom and friends that I was fired. My shame, as shame so often does, turned into anger at my former employers. Who were THEY to judge ME? They always talked about giving people second chances, and how we have to learn to forgive and forget. They told me many times how much they liked me and blah blah blah. And THEN they go and FIRE me for $7.00 worth of rental fees? Get the net!
Anyway, about a month after that I got a job at the grocery store. We're the only grocery store in town since the IGA burnt down, so I knew that eventually I would run into my former employers from Hanson's (let's call them ShMike and ShmDianne).
I kept wondering how I would react to seeing them again for the first time. In fact, I kept making up scenarios in my head. ShMike would be on the side of the road, his crappy overpriced Jeep Grand Cherokee all broke to shit. I would pass him in my little white car while his arms waved wildly. It would be the middle of the night, and the road would be a little travelled one. Sometimes, I would just drive by, pretending not to notice him. Other times, I would pull up along side him. ShMike would ask me if he could get a lift to town, or maybe if I had some jumper cables. I would say something clever like, "Should have thought of that before you fired me, ShMike!", and then peel out and fling gravel into his stupid holier than thou eyes in his stupid condenscending face. Still other times, I would act the good samaritan. On the ride into town, he would say, "So, you're not pissed that we were unfair to you?"
I would reply "C'mon, ShMike, I'm not that petty. What's done is done, just move past it. I did."
So, today I saw him after almost a month of working at the grocery store. I spotted him two customers back in my line. My head spun, trying to decide if I was going to ask someone to take over for me or if I would just suck it up and be professional. Before I could decide to cut and run, he was at the counter. And...
I was cordial. I smiled, and called him by name. I asked how he was, and he replied. I ran his groceries over the scanner, charged them to his account, and then I smiled at him again and told him to have a good night. I think he was kind impressed at my inability to hold a grudge.
I know I was.