People Different From Us

I know in my head that my normal is just that- mine. However, I am still struck at times by how others' lives are different from mine. I encountered 2 such situations last week.

Situation #1

My boss noticed towards the end of the month that her debit card was getting ready to expire, and she hadn't received a replacement. She called the bank, and she was informed that a replacement had indeed been sent, but it must have been lost in the mail. They asked if she wanted them to send a new one, and she told them she did. What they neglected to tell her was when the order was placed for the new one, it cancelled her current card. She found this out when she went to pay for something, and her card was declined. What surprised me was she said that left her with no other way to pay for things except cash. This blew my mind. I have multiple banks accounts with debit cards and checks as well as a selection of credit cards that I could use. She ended up paying $30 to have her new card overnighted to her to get it faster. She then left work at lunch, drove to her house about 30 minutes away and back to get it from the mailbox when it arrived.

I ran into a similar situation with my debit card several years ago. I only use my debit card to get cash, and when I went to do so, it wouldn't work. Upon closer inspection, it had been expired for some time. I did contact the bank and get a new one issued, but it was not a big deal for me. 

Situation #2

My coworker is celebrating a milestone birthday next year. We we talking about how she was going to celebrate. She said "I always said I was going to get a G Wagon when I turned X. But they are $150,000." For those of you not familiar, this is a G Wagon. She's thinking of a trip to Europe or Singapore instead. I told her that $150K would be a lot of trips to Europe. This was interesting to me because while I like the look of nice cars, it's not something I choose to spend money on.

Morale of the story: Our normal is truly ours alone. It is fascinating how the lives of others differ from our own.