The White Pants

And in a fraction of the time, we're up to 2000 hits. So in celebration of another milestone, let me share an experience that happened to me a few years ago and what I learned.

During my time in graduate school at Indiana University, I made tons of new friends and met a bunch of interesting people. I didn't get a chance to get too close to everyone I had classes with, but by the end of my first year I was fairly well acquainted with about 80% of the MBAs I regularly saw. One individual in particular I was not so well acquainted with was a very quiet, shy, and sweet girl in my class. She kept to herself mostly, didn't speak the best English, and was friendly and polite. During my time in grad school, I'd say that I had one small conversation with her prior to this event and it probably went something like, "Hey Gary" and I responded "Hi." Very deep conversation as you can see.

I was in a food court in my second year of business school and I heard a quiet whisper of a noise coming from behind me. I turned to see the girl I referred to above saying hello to me. She was a nice girl and I heard she had a small crush on me, so to be polite I struck up a quick conversation with her about how everything is going, how are classes, and so on. At the time she was wearing a very bright outfit, light colored shirt and white jeans, very stylish and she looked nice. I was waiting for my food and had my hands free but she was holding on to a food tray packed with stuff, slice of pizza, maybe a bag of chips, and an open container of iced coffee. The conversation seemed to be winding down and I said bye. Just as I was about to grab my food to walk away, the girl somehow loses her balance, the tray goes flying into the air and the open container of iced coffee spills all over her. Luckily I was unharmed, not a splash touched me, but this poor girl had coffee stains all over her bright shirt and white pants, we're talking completely covered.

Some people might rush to her aid, scramble for napkins, maybe pick the tray up and help her clean. But I was frozen in my place. This was perhaps the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life, too funny to even laugh. Here was this girl completely covered in coffee, on the verge of tears, everyone stopping to look. She sees me standing there, staring at her in shock. We locked eyes and glared at each other in silence for what seemed like hours. Finally said to me, "It's ok, you can go." I was still speechless and in another world mentally and could not get myself together. After contemplating my options, I gave her a slight nod, turned around and walked away.

It was possibly the rudest thing I've ever done in my life but when I think back I couldn't imagine handling it differently. I don't think we ever spoke again the remainder of my Indiana days. Did I learn anything from this event??? I don't think so. I probably should have helped her but hindsight is 20-20. Next time you see the most ridiculous thing ever, see how quickly you react. Lets see some comments on this one.