Was talking with my mom yesterday morning and this story from my life came up. It's a bit of a long one, but it illustrates a recurring theme in my life.

I was fortunate enough to have a chance to study abroad in Spain about a decade ago now. While there, I stayed in a campus village with fellow Americans on the same study tour. So, one night, we all decided to go somewhere for tapas and drinks (a very Spanish thing to do). We had our fill and asked for the bill. A bit of relevant background: There was a special that night of a tapa and a drink for €5. We didn't order our food and drink as specials, but our waiter, trying to be helpful, grouped our orders together as such.

I was apparently the only one who noticed the special written on the board by the door. I was also apparently the only one who actually looked at our reciept and saw all of the specials.

So, the group couldn't figure out how their math wasn't adding up (they had something like €25 extra on the table), but simultaneously jumped down my throat, accusing me of trying to stiff them by paying the amount I owed on the receipt.

I spent over fifteen minutes in vain trying to convince them of something that should have been readily apparent. I even brought a few of them to the sign advertising the special. It still, somehow, didn't convince them. There were only so many times I could repeat the word "Special!" and I was starting to get really angry, so I gave them double what I owed and left.

I learned a lesson that night. I will be disbelieved even if I'm proven right. If my statements inconvenience people (even for petty stuff like meal specials), I will be brought to heel. I can't convince anyone of anything. (If I can't convince people I considered friends...)

My current job has done wonders for combatting that lesson (on the employment front anyway), but even then, I see echoes of it in what I do. To illustrate one scenario, I have customers ask for recommendations and immediately go for the item I don't recommend, then they come back angry because the item I didn't recommend didn't work.

Or my family. The running "joke" I have for my dad is that I could cure cancer tomorrow, but I would be (to him) in the wrong for putting those poor oncologists out of work.

It's hard not to be perpetually paranoid when people seem to go to absurd lengths to not believe you over the tiniest things and want you to "pay" for your "lies."