Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

People have their own experiences. Assuming their experience denies them as a person. Try to avoid such.

Each person has their own experience with something. It is often the case that several people have similar experiences. That gives me the luxury of describing some “average” experience and continuing to satisfy the “average” person.

Nevertheless, the individual’s experience is their own. Denying their experience denies them as a human person.

I had this happen yet again recently. Someone showed my their documents. I told them, “I had to study this back and forth for hours to understand it.” The person assured me that the documents were easy to understand and that everyone understood them quickly and easily.

That person denied my experience. They also assumed my experience. I was part of “everyone,” so my experience would be just like everyone’s experience. Trying to have my own experience was me just being difficult.

Life and work can be difficult. I work on something and explain my work to others. They look at me and tell me that they don’t understand what I did. WHAT? IT’S PERFECTLY CLEAR! THEY DON’T SEE THE GENIUS IN MY WORK!

I am denying their experience. I am assuming what they should experience. I need to breathe, pause, and learn something from them. And, in the final analysis, I need to decide if that person is worth my efforts.

Gosh. This is more difficult than what they told me in college.