I had a customer come in and tell me that she felt overwhelmed. She was a little bigger and her boyfriend was with her while they walked around the store. She slowly made her way to the chocolate case and started shaking her head. I waited a minute and then I asked if there was anything I could get for her out of the chocolate case. She looked up at me and shook her head slightly. I don’t know if she thought that I wouldn’t notice or maybe she was just telling me no. Either way I smile and told her that if she needed anything out of the case or if she changed her mind to let me know. She smirked and made a little laugh. She then says "I don’t know how you work here, I would eat all the chocolate in here" To me it seemed like a normal thing to say and I responded with 

"Yea I have a pretty bad sweet tooth so I know what you mean" and without missing a beat she responded with, 

"Yea but you don’t look like me" and instantly I shut up. 

I don’t like to argue with people about their weight. I don’t know what they have been through, I don’t know if they have a condition and I certainly don’t want to get into it while I am at work. I think that there is still a stereotype that bigger people seem to have it harder than others. Personally I do have a problem with food and my relationship with it isn’t at its best. There are days when I look at food and I just don’t want anything to do with it. Then other days it’s in reverse and I overeat and I hate myself for it. My relationship with food is very on and off so to me it seems unfair that most people use it against people that look like me. 

I may be "skinny" and I may run, look like I am happy and healthy but, you don’t know my story and you don’t know what I think about every day. You don’t know my struggles and honestly it kind of hit a cord with me when she said it. It’s been stuck in my head for weeks and sometimes I remember what she said while I’m eating something sweet. It’s been a while since I have had a customer’s opinion stick with me but this one did. 

The lesson from all of this is to be mindful of what you say. You don’t know that person, you don’t know what they think and you don’t know what’s been happening in their life. I’m sure she didn’t mean for it to be something that I would think about or even write about. She probably thought I would dismiss it and move on with my life but, that’s obviously not the case. 

Just please be mindful of other people and mam, I hope that whatever you are going through that it gets better for you and that you are able to keep moving forward and make strides towards goals you wish to do. All we can do, is keep battling the problems that we have and keep living.