i don’t like the way some people assume too much when they don’t even know me well. that’s why i seldom tell acquaintances much about myself. there’s this work mate who very nearly pissed me off big time but again, i had to remain nice and diplomatic cos after all, i will need to work with him for another three weeks.

out of the blue we happened to talk about my choice of university in australia and i explained i didn’t spend a lot of time choosing cos it was an impulsive decision to further studies. so he conveniently made a few far-fetched links and assumed i’m an “ah sia kia”, which was wrong in many ways. first, “kia” refers to a male kid and that does not apply to me, thank you very much. secondly, i am darn sure i haven’t been behaving like an “ah sia” recently. it didn’t occur to him that my current place of residence is not reflective of my upbringing or financial status. besides, it’s not as if i live in the swanky town areas or something.

then he went on to assume that i took up this 4-hours-per-day job cos i wanted a slack lifestyle and blah blah blah. all of which were untrue and i have no idea how he derived the links. can’t there be other reasons for taking up this part-time job instead of a 9-to-5 job? he declared my status as an “ah sia kia” right in front of another person.

i was pissed but i didn’t want to explain myself cos each explanation would take too much time and i had to serve the customers on and off. besides, there’s no point in explaining cos i don’t need him to understand me. it just irks me that there’s a lot of such assuming people around.

it’s the worst case when colleagues assume that and therefore judge my work standards according to their inaccurate assumptions. which is why i always try to maintain a low profile about myself but like what we say in chinese, “paper cannot be used be contain fire” and somehow, it’s always these assuming people who know about it first.

still, this serves as a timely reminder to myself to stop judging people i don’t know well.