I feel like a horrible human being.

When people finish reading this article they will think, “Wow, Jackie is a huge bitch,” and they are probably right.  I won’t lie, sometimes I can be kind of, well, bitchy.

I don’t want to be this way, but it just happens. Every now and then while out in public I tend to overreact and take my frustrations or annoyances out on the people around me. Sometimes these reactions are justified, but other times- like last night- I know I was wrong. 

My boyfriend and I were taking a quick trip to Whole Foods Market so I could pick up some yogurt for my breakfast in the morning. I only eat Chobani plain Greek yogurt. The last two times I had stopped at this particular Whole Foods to get this it was not there. So, as you can guess I was none-too-happy to see that once again my yogurt was nowhere in sight.

Yes I was tired, yes this yogurt was my only reason for coming to Whole Foods at 9 P.M., but no, there is no excuse for my behavior. It isn’t like I punched the guy in the face, but this upper-middle-aged shelf-stocker seemed to be my only target to express my frustration at the time.

Steve (the bf) stood behind me as I asked the employee, “Is there no Chobani yogurt left?” He replied, “We ran out this week.”

“Oh, well, do you only get Chobani every two weeks? Because the last few times I’ve come here there hasn’t been any.” – Me

“No, we get it once a week, we just must have ran out.” – Him

“Well, did you run out more than once because I haven’t seen it for a while now.” – Me

“Well, we had it, but–.”

At that point I kind of cut him off and mumbled something about how that was only kind I liked and the others were too expensive and I hated this place.

I walked away in a bit of a huff and headed down another aisle with Steve. He looked at me shaking his head from side to side.

“You know that man has nothing to do with the Chobani running out.”

“I know, but I mean, it is annoying.”

“Jackie, it’s Friday night, he probably just wants to go home and you are belittling him when he has no control over the yogurt.”

Oh God, he was right. I am a horrible person. It’s bad enough that the guy has to work in hippie-dippy Whole Foods Market, but this particular store is located in Newton, Mass., where the stay-at-home snobby moms are coming in to look for all-organic apples and breast-feeding their way down the aisles.

I felt like an asshole and turned around to watch as the employee I had smited continued to stock the shelves. Steve then went on to create a story about how the stocker’s wife was sitting at home waiting for him and that he had three small children that never got to eat fancy Greek yogurt. I don’t know how true all of that was, but I knew that he didn’t deserve the bitchiness I had just dished out. Besides, I’ve had enough bad customer experiences in my life to know that after a long shift on a Friday night you could break down at any minute.

I walked back over to him and started fiddling with the yogurts sheepishly.

“Ya know, this one is actually pretty good. They all taste the same, anyway. I don’t need the Chobani. Thank you for your help.”

I smiled at him and he smiled back.

Sometimes you get ticked off, and it’s easy to freak out on whoever happens to be around at the time- even if they have no control over whatever the situation is that’s making you angry. I think I probably do that a little too often. But after last night I have vowed to try and stop myself before I lose my temper and think, “Hey, this guy or this gal have nothing to do with this,” or “Maybe this person is having a bad day.”

I guess the main point of my story is: You never know what the people around you are going through so try to be decent and respectful to everyone. Is that corny? Wow- I guess I’ll feel really silly if that stocker has been secretly hoarding all of the Chobanis in his car this whole time.