Thought for the Week

Timothy D. Stein, MFT, CSAT

March 11, 2013

Dave’s Wedding

I was the best man at my friend, Dave’s wedding.  At the reception, I ran into a college aquaintance named Russ.  Now, from my perspective, Russ was the cool one in college.  He was the jazz musician.  He had the great music collection.  As much as I enjoyed music, I felt I was not cool enough to hang out with Russ.  After the best man’s toast, Russ came up to me an said, “Tim, in college, I always thought you were too cool to hang out with me and I thought that you kept yourself aloof.  After your toast, I realize I was totally wrong.  You’re just a normal guy with a great connection to people.”  I was stunned that we both made the same incorrect assumption about the other and missed out on a potentially deeper friendship.

Am I  making assumptions about people around me?  How might I check out the accuracy of these assumptions?  What friendships might I be missing?