Speechless
Sometimes do you ever wish that you had a voice recorder so that you could play back and re-listen to something someone just said. When you can't actually believe what they came out with?
I had one of those moments today with my trainee. She seems to be making ever more frequent appearances on this blog, but today she almost managed not not annoy me due to the jawdroppingness of one of her comments.
It started when I was explaining that I thought I'd be a bit distracted all week, with the marathon looming and packing and shopping to do. My main problem being suddenly remembering something that needed to be on the list, which I'd forgotten up to that moment. By way of example I told her that I'd only remembered to pack swimming stuff that morning on my way to the gym for a pre-work swim.
Her response?
"You're so fit... no wonder you're like a beanpole".
I was literally speechless. So much so that a couple of open mouthed moments later she followed up with "that was meant to be a compliment, you know". Erm yes, just a compliment I never in a million years thought that anyone would ever pay to me. I was just speechless because I didn't know what to say, and because I was trying to replay the recording in my head to check that she'd said what I thought she'd said.
It's funny how other people see you sometimes. I don't know whether she knows what I used to look like, but even if she does, she's never known that me and has only ever known the, ahem, beanpole me. But I don't see myself like that a lot of the time. I'm getting better, and starting to think of myself as a thin person who used to be fat, rather than a fat person who suddenly got thin, but sometimes I still don't really grasp just how thin I am.
The number of people who said, as I was losing weight, that at my height I didn't need to be thinner than a 12 - 14. Maybe that was partly their expectation that I'd always be a bit on the chunky side. Not that a 14 is fat by any means, but it's not my current size 10. I really can't believe it, every time I put my size 10 suits (I have 2 of them now!) on I check the label, to make sure I'm not making it up.
But back to the comment that it was meant to be a compliment. I started thinking, how else could I take it? Oh God. Is it really possible that she thinks I thought she meant I am TOO THIN? And then I was unable to speak again...
I had one of those moments today with my trainee. She seems to be making ever more frequent appearances on this blog, but today she almost managed not not annoy me due to the jawdroppingness of one of her comments.
It started when I was explaining that I thought I'd be a bit distracted all week, with the marathon looming and packing and shopping to do. My main problem being suddenly remembering something that needed to be on the list, which I'd forgotten up to that moment. By way of example I told her that I'd only remembered to pack swimming stuff that morning on my way to the gym for a pre-work swim.
Her response?
"You're so fit... no wonder you're like a beanpole".
I was literally speechless. So much so that a couple of open mouthed moments later she followed up with "that was meant to be a compliment, you know". Erm yes, just a compliment I never in a million years thought that anyone would ever pay to me. I was just speechless because I didn't know what to say, and because I was trying to replay the recording in my head to check that she'd said what I thought she'd said.
It's funny how other people see you sometimes. I don't know whether she knows what I used to look like, but even if she does, she's never known that me and has only ever known the, ahem, beanpole me. But I don't see myself like that a lot of the time. I'm getting better, and starting to think of myself as a thin person who used to be fat, rather than a fat person who suddenly got thin, but sometimes I still don't really grasp just how thin I am.
The number of people who said, as I was losing weight, that at my height I didn't need to be thinner than a 12 - 14. Maybe that was partly their expectation that I'd always be a bit on the chunky side. Not that a 14 is fat by any means, but it's not my current size 10. I really can't believe it, every time I put my size 10 suits (I have 2 of them now!) on I check the label, to make sure I'm not making it up.
But back to the comment that it was meant to be a compliment. I started thinking, how else could I take it? Oh God. Is it really possible that she thinks I thought she meant I am TOO THIN? And then I was unable to speak again...
posted by YP at 7:54 PM
4 Comments:
Ha ha ha! I was reading this thinkign "oh wow, her trainee must have said something really awful" and then just kept waiting for whatever was going to be bad!
I'd take that as a compliment, all right!
Priceless :)
What a lovely thing to hear! All your very hard work is paying off!! Congrats!!
I can't help thinking that if you were a naturally skinny person, "beanpole" might have hurt your feelings. But we're expected to take any expression of skinniness as wonderful.
Not that I don't get your elation, of course. :)
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