Never assume…it just makes an ass out of you and me.
So, my 6th grade teacher was the first person I ever heard say this. I could not believe that she said “ass” in front of a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds… But I still think it on a regular basis, because honestly I have never learned my lesson adequately when it comes to assuming.
Yesterday it came back to bite me because I just assumed that I had not received an expected email with an assignment for a meeting yesterday because something had changed on the other person’s end. I didn’t want to be a pest – this is a pretty important person at my university – so I just assumed, went about my business…. and then found out that I did not get the email because of a typo on their end, and a failure of the system when it didn’t reject that email (because the email address they used does not exist… who knows where it went?).
By assuming, I set myself up for an afternoon of frustration and annoyance, and then time spent afterwards trying to figure it out. Sigh.
I also made an assumption about my spouse’s career goals – I can’t go into detail, but suffice to say that they are not as ambitious as I thought they might be. Not wanting to go after a potential promotion. I had always assumed that if the opportunity arose, they would take it but apparently that is not the case. So, yeah. Bad assumption on my part… me, as someone who would take the promotion, who strives to succeed in her field.
So, trying – AGAIN – to remember not to assume. But I know I’ll make an ass out of myself more times that I can count in the rest of my life. Such is life as a human, I suppose.