Assumptions

I was riding with a guy that I don't know that well, but like, and one of my best friends. He was telling us about how this girl has been hurting him. The example that he gave was that someone told her she was doing something gross. He said that she could be doing something twice as gross and all would probably be fine.

The girl got mad and told him to stop being sarcastic. Only he wasn't being sarcastic; he was defending her. And he felt like she was treating him badly.

Hearing his story I feel bad for this guy. She wasn't right to treat him like that.

But I identify with her.

This guy is usually sarcastic, so that is what she sees and expects. I can see myself telling the guy to shut up, assuming he's being sarcastic, and never checking to see that he withstood my sharp words.

After all, if you're friends with someone, they know that you respect and care for them, right? Do you have to tiptoe around them? When I am friends with someone, I put down my guard. I don't pretend to be a nice, perfect person anymore. When I don't have my guard on, I don't carefully thing through every sentence. At this point, I assume that people know me well enough to identify the the million ways that I try to express my craziness about them, and to overlook the times that I am a jerk.

But you know what they say about assuming...

I feel like avoiding everyone who I think I could easily hurt. I feel like being angry with them for making big deals out of nothing. And I feel like I should be more careful, but I don't even know how.