Jury Duty

One day in high school I was standing in line ordering my bagel without cream cheese for lunch. After I ordered my lunch I would carry it to the orchestra classroom and eat it there outside of the glare of, what felt like, the constant scrutiny of the other students.

That wasn't actually happening, it just felt that way. But one day during lunch, this one girl came up to me and asked me for a quarter. When I said I didn't have an extra one, she got closer to me and asked for a quarter again. Then she asked again, getting closer, then closer.

We were in the same Social Psychology class so I knew she was performing an experiment we were all assigned. To push a social norm out of the ordinary and see what kind of reaction it sparked.

Finally I put my hand out asking her to stop.

This was riotously funny to her. So funny she went away and gathered a few friends so they could see what I did. She said, "Watch this!" as she recreated the whole scenario with her friends standing around me in line while I was just trying to get my bagel to take back to the orchestra classroom.

I know this was almost 20 years ago and I've learned from some other situations that this kind of thing is silly to focus on. I learned we all do dumb things as kids and to think these tiny things mean anything to anyone but you is very self absorbed and a little silly.

Still, I was the girl who ate lunch in the orchestra classroom so you can imagine how humiliating it was and how it stuck with me.

Years after this, I was looking at a local magazine and there was a feature about local judges and their families. A judge was featured with his family, including his stepdaughter, the Social Psychology student who begged for money in my face.

This alone wasn't really anything. Except the judge was the same judge who heard my father's drunk driving case 10 years (at the time) earlier.

Still that alone wouldn't be a big deal.

Except that today I reported to the county court to serve my very first jury duty summons.

I ended up in a courtroom hearing a (really lame) case in THIS SAME JUDGE'S courtroom.

During the jury selection process this judge asked me what I did for a living because I answered "Self Employed" on the preliminary questionnaire.

I told him I write for a parenting website, a shopping website for kids and I also have my own personal website that accepts advertising.

He stopped, smiled and said, "You made your own career."

That interaction will probably stick with me as long as the stupid incident in the school cafeteria has.