True Stories About What Happens When You Look Much Younger Than You Really Are

About two years ago...
Cashier: (after I accidentally enter the wrong PIN for my debit card) Is it your card or Mom's?
Me: It's mine. I forgot that I just changed my PIN and I put in the old one.
Cashier: Evil question. How old are you?
Me: 21, almost 22.
Cashier: You don't look a day past 15.

About one year ago...
Cashier: (when I approach the register with a can of spray paint) Are you 21? You need to be 21 to buy spray paint.
Me: I'm 22.
Cashier: May I check your driver license? (I give it to her. She studies it.) Born in 1990.... (turning to other cashier... apparently she can't do math) If she was born in 1990, how old would that make her now?
Other cashier: 22.
First cashier: Studies my license for several more seconds before ringing me up.

Last fall...
Craft store employee: (when my sister and I had laid out the things we were planning to BUY on the pattern book table) Are you going to put all that away?

All the time...
Countless People: What grade are you in?

Two weeks ago when I went to vote...
Woman volunteering at the desk: Why, you look like a little child!

A ton of scathing retorts come to my mind... usually seconds, minutes or hours too late to use them. Which is probably for the best. I certainly don't need an arrest when I'm trying to exercise my right to vote.

I've said my share of really stupid things to people too. Worse, much worse, than that someone looks like a little child. Sometimes the words I choose are clumsy and aren't what I really think. Sometimes they are what I really think, and I realize later- sometimes just a split- second later- that that wasn't the best thing to say. There have been times when I've come home from work or somewhere else, and scenes from the day come back to my mind, and I realize how horrible some of the things I said must have sounded to others. And I feel really bad.

I wonder how many times I've insulted, disrespected, or hurt someone else, and never ever realized it?

I've received so much grace already in my life. I want to be someone who's always ready to give grace too.