March 10th, 2020
Yesterday, I was getting off the plane and walking across the crosswalk exiting the airport.

I was walking really slow and hobbling because I was so sore from the marathon. My legs were like sticks because I couldn't really bend them at the knee without being in a lot of pain, sometimes a big step felt like I would crumble and would have to brace myself.

There was a car waiting at the crosswalk for me. He had a lot of room - and definitely could have just driven through. But they instead gave me the right of way to let me cross - in that crosswalk I had the right of way.

But at the time I didn't notice, I was just walking really slowly because I was in so much pain. I was also messing around on my phone trying to call my mom who was there to pick me up from the airport.

When I finished crossing the crosswalk, the car honked really loud at me and I turned around. The guy in the passenger seat of that car was flipping me off and honking the horn. Then they drove off.

When I saw that, my gut reaction was to flip him off and yell "FUCK YOU" really loud. And that's exactly what I did. I yelled "FUCK YOU" and everyone outside the airport was staring at me. 

As he was driving away, he kept flipping me off and then he drove off, like a coward - he waited until I crossed to make his move so he could drive off quickly.

I was in disbelief. "I'm walking in intense pain and this dude thinks I was trolling him and walking slowly on purpose?" - "I was walking as fast as I could." - "What if I was a disabled person?" - "Is this the type of dude who honks at disabled people?" - "What a cunt".

I couldn't stop thinking about it. I got in the car with my mom and she kept asking me about my trip - but I couldn't focus on anything but this dude that flipped me off.

At the time, I wish I could have "showed him" - like explained my situation so I would be "right" and he would be "wrong".

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought about "perception" - what did he see? He saw a tall-ish white dude who was shuffling through the crosswalk fiddling with his phone, probably texting. He had no idea I ran a marathon. I don't look disabled. I had a backwards hat on. I probably looked like an asshole, to him.

And who knows, maybe this guy had somewhere to be. I assumed this guy getting off his flight too. Maybe he was catching a flight, and was about to miss it because he was late. Maybe someone in his family was sick, or passed away. Who knows!

I wish, in that moment, I didn't turn back around and flip him off as well. I wish I looked at him and just laughed, and then spent the time with my mom having a nice conversation, and didn't think about this guy.

Life's too short to get mad and hold a grudge against a dude who flipped you off from his car.