Daily / Weekly Prompts!

What if I spoke my mind?

The Indecisive Eejit29 Comments
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Image by: alexisnyal

In response to this weeks Okay, What if? Weekly Writing Challenge. – What if I spoke my Mind!

I’m terrible at speaking up, I always have things to say, but more often than not I back down as I am not a fan of confrontation.

Jed’s theme for this challenge reminded me of an incident that happened on the train last week. It is an occasion where I wanted to speak my mind, but aside from that it also made me realise how two people can view the same situation in different ways.

I remember the morning in question, because I was debating doing the change over at the first station where the train turns into an express. It was a busy morning and there were already people standing in the aisle’s and doorways. I glanced back and decided not to bother, I had a seat and blog reading was particularly good that morning.

The conductor was moving down the train towards the doors right behind my seat as the train had already pulled into the station. People were trying to get off by wading through the crowd trying to get on. It was a bit of a human traffic jam.

A lady (and I use that term very loosely) entering the train obviously spied the empty seat beside me and pushed against the crowd to reach it. In doing so she met the conductor trying to go the other way and pushed towards him too, until he eventually said something along the lines of, can you let people get off first.

Having experienced first hand, trying to leave a train against the flow, I thought the lady pushy and rude, I’ve blogged before about how I feel it is polite to let other passengers leave before entering a train.

I said nothing. What I wanted to say was, “Seriously, have you no patience, like none at all. Could you not have waited until everyone was off. You practically shoved the conductor out of the way.”

It’s funny how when something happens, you become aware of someone, who you would normally never have paid any attention to. Subconsciously you place yourself on guard.

A couple of stops later this lady picks up her mobile and phones someone. I don’t usually listen to other people’s conversations, although on a train, sometimes it is extremely hard not to.

Obviously the person she was talking to was either a partner or family member, who also it would seem works for the transport company who run the trains. She told them that she felt like putting in a complaint against the conductor because he was rude and also because of the way he pushed her to the side. I believe she said that she did not like the way he had laid hands on her. She told the person on the phone she had the staff number and they were obviously going to try and obtain the name of the conductor.

I swear she had to know I was listening, because a couple of times I turned and gave her the look, the ‘are you for fecking real’ look! I was actually getting quite annoyed and wanted to jump up and down yelling ‘what the absolute f*ck!!!’ See how cross I was, I never use the word absolute, I can’t even spell it ffs.

I had not witnessed any of the things she said, and my perception of the incident was totally different. I thought she was the one who was rude and pushy and if I’d had the balls to speak my mind I’d have told her that an all!!

For more information on this Challenge and to follow Okay, What if? click the picture below:

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29 thoughts on “What if I spoke my mind?”

  1. She sounded like an absolute cow and I really get the shits with people who try push onto my bus before the other passengers have pushed off. If I were you, or rather if it were me in that situation, I would have written to the train company praising the conductor and explained the situation. I don’t think I would have confronted her, either, given that I would have had to sit next to the selfish cow for the duration.

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    • Lol I know most of the conductors so said to one of them to let him know thgay someone else saw the excchange , mind you, there is nothing to say I’m right either, it was just my perception, and my perception was also that she was a cow! Lol

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      • I had a woman get on my bus today and she didn’t hail the bus to start with, then when she got on, she waved her ticket at me kinda so I couldn’t really see the expiration time and date on it. I took it and saw it had expired eight hours earlier and told her off her she needed to get a new one. She got huffy with me and told me she was a student (dug out her card) and had been charged full fare (well, duh, bitch, didn’t you count your friggin change?!) and since the full fare ticket was the same price as two concession tickets she didn’t think she had to get another one. I told her that how did I know she even showed the bus driver her student card that morning. Her ticket was expired and she needed to buy a new one. She then flashed her student card at me again and I checked it to make sure it was even valid for concession. I forget exactly what happened, but I was calm and polite and she then told me I was rude. I told her that I thought she was the rude one……… (p.s. I’m gonna copy and paste my reply into FB lol…saves me typing it again, and face it! I simply DO have to tell the world! lol)

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  4. It’s a funny thing the thoughts in our heads or the ones we wish we had said.

    Very interesting post, I appreciate you linking up this week and providing some excellent reading.

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  7. Ooooh, how good it would feel sometimes to just speak your mind indeed! But sometimes it’s hard. When you still have to share a house with them, or lessons, or a train ride.
    But how good it would feel!

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  11. For some reason, I wasn’t getting updates for your blog on my reader. I unfollowed and then refollowed again, so hopefully that fixes that issue!

    Anyway, I really hate that about my commutes on the trains. People are really rude about not letting other people off the train. It’s like our society has become more about “me” and less about trying to be considerate towards other people. Would it kill people to be polite? Either way, I know what you mean about wanting to speak up but I don’t like confrontation either, so I keep my opinions to myself. It’s not like I’ll see that person ever again and I just concern myself with treating people how I want to be treated, even though there are jerks out there in the world who don’t deserve any respect.

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    • Hey don’t worry, it happened loads of people when I changed my blog name, for some reason I just disappeared from readers lol Thank you for the re follow.
      I agree, I like to treat others as I would like to be treated, bar the days when I have PMT and anyone is fair game lol
      Even a simple thing like smiling at someone can make their day!

      We need to learn to speak up, either that or buy megaphones so we can run to a safe distance and then hurl abuse lol

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  14. Sometimes, it does pay to stand up – so to speak – and speak one’s mind. If it had been me, and that unbelievable woman was going to file a complaint, I would have told her off – and then – icing on the cake, noted the train #, the time, the station where the incident took place, find the conductor and get his name or number etc. AND then —- I would have filed and official counter-complaint – in the conductor’s defense. If he had done nothing wrong – and clearly it sounds like he hadn’t – and “Madame” was embellishing – Beyotch – then I would have ensured that those “authorities” knew it. *Some people* don’t realize that their irresponsible and selfish actions can have serious repercussions – all because mad cow was in a hurry. FFS!

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      • Yay! Good for you! At least you’ve been pro-active – which is good —- as she mutters under her breath – (stupid cow of a pushy woman making travel for one and all uncomfortable and unpleasant!)

        Sheesh – I wasn’t even there and ya have me all riled up!

        Courtesy? What’s that? Foreign object from outta space?

        Glad that at least you did the right thing, even if it was more on the quieter side. good on you Juls!

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