Ethnography

Ethnography

November 16, 2014

A Conversation Long Overdue


A couple of minutes after placing my order I noticed two girls sitting near me, they were both quiet and it seemed as if they were avoiding eye contact. Since I’m only a few feet away I’m capable of over hearing their conversation, which at first wasn’t much. One of the girls, Nana, was very serious; her facial expressions didn’t give me much. While Jay, seemed to be a little more relaxed, and smiled more often than Nana did. Jay started by asking how Nana had been doing, I might have been just a couple of feet away but I was able to feel how awkward that situation was. At first it seemed as if they were just two strangers, but as the conversation went on I realized that they had been friends for a while.

Nana wasn’t talking much, she wouldn’t look up at Jay, I didn’t understand what kind of situation it was but I knew that it was definitely one that had put their friendship in jeopardy. For a couple of minutes it was complete silence, neither one of them said anything. Jay would look at Nana hoping she would say something, and seemed to be debating on whether or not to say anything, Nana simply stared down at the table. Nana then said, “I wasn’t trying for this to get to this point, I considered you one of my girls, and it honestly hurt me how everything went down but my pride is much bigger than this whole situation.” I looked over at Jay and as Nana was saying this her eyes got watery, Nana just stared at her showing no emotion. I noticed that Jay was trying really hard to hold in her tears, she looked down at the table and then said, “I’m so sorry! You are one of my girls, you’ve had my back no matter what but I just had to do it!” As Jay was saying that I assumed it had to do with a boy. Jay looked up at Nana hoping she would say something, Nana just stared at her, I didn’t know if Nana just didn’t want to go off on her or she simply had nothing else to say. It was a bit frustrating because Nana was really hard to read, she was showing no emotion, and had such a serious look that I really didn’t know what to think.

Minutes later, Jay looks up and Nana and says, “I know I hurt you, and you might not believe me but I didn’t want it, I had no choice.” Nana looked up at her, and simply nodded. Jay wasn’t able to hold her tears in and began to cry, it was then when Nana broke down too. Nana looked up at Jay and said, “at this point it doesn’t even matter anymore, I didn’t get that position for a reason! Maybe it was because of my availability, or because it just wasn’t it wasn’t meant to be. I’m sorry for acting the way I was, it’s just that my pride got the best of me. It hurts to know I busted my butt for that promotion and in the end I didn’t get it, but I know what you’re capable of doing and I know that you’re going to do great! I’m gonna be there for you no matter what!” Jay quickly got up and hugged Nana.

Apparently Jay had taken the position that Nana had been working so hard for and didn’t really know how to go about it; it was clear that, that conversation was long overdue. After that it seemed as if nothing had happened.

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