dailyprompt-2080 – Mallaband-Brown

Tell us about a time when you felt out of place.

My hubby and I were on holiday in the South West but the weather was bad and so we decided to stay our last night at a local youth hostel.

We arrived and booked a double room. But were then asked if we could stay in dormortaries as a group of foreign students had arrived and the teachers wanted to sleep seperatly from their pupils.

We agreed and I politely tried to say I only spoke a little of their language.

Evening meal and then bedtime. The girls I was sharing the dorm with started talking and continued chatting and giggling late into the night. I had absolutely no idea what they were saying and spent two or three hours with the pillow over my head trying to block out the sound.

It was awful, I felt so out of place, I barely slept and had a long cycle ride ahead of me in the morning.

Would I do it again? Yes to be polite, but I might have to think about it first

Tell us about a time when you felt out of place.

I was a child and because my eyes were bad I couldn’t see where my parents were on a big beach. So I got lost, but luckily someone found me and I got back to my family. Then they found out I was short sighted, so I ended up with glasses.

Later I got lost trying to map read while my mom drove. I wasn’t very good at it, so we took the right road, but headed south not north. Eventually I realised I had gone wrong and we found our way home. After that I studied maps (on paper), so I knew where I was.

But feeling out of place can also be emotional. I used to do an important job and did it well, but I didn’t fit in with other staff members because they thought I was too soft with our customers. I started to feel very out of place. I think I suffered from imposter syndrome. I second guessed myself all the time, thinking I would get caught out for doing things wrong.

I’m glad I’m out of it. I want to feel I have a real place to be,

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: dailyprompt-2080

At a Youth Hostel

Quite often