I'm a juror....and other revelations

I’ve been on jury duty since Monday. Today was the third day of jury interviews. They were down to the last 40 or so people and I thought for sure I would not even get called to be interviewed before the full panel was picked. My name was called with 7 others. During the interview process, I figured, for sure, that since I work in the media, that I would be immediately bounced from the pool. The judge asked for a sidebar with the attorneys---SURELY they would come back and say I was gone. Nope. They dismissed 7 others and kept me! I’m officially on the jury of what I understand will be a long trial…. About 2-3 weeks.

Here’s what I did learn over the past 3 days during jury selection. Everybody has a story. There were some interview questions asked of all us jurors that caused us to have to share some very personal stuff that happened in our lives to make sure we were a good fit for this particular trial. Ohhhhhh, the stories I heard. There were some people who had so much traumatic stuff happen in their lives, that it made me realize how sheltered or how boring my little life has been. And I thank God for that! Ya know, God only gives us as much as we can handle and nothing more, but WOW, some people in this world have shouldered a lot! And in comparison, I have shouldered very little. But I guess it’s all relative. Maybe some of the stuff I've dealt with has been just as tough as their stuff. You never know…..

It made me realize, that as we cross paths with people in this world, you just never know what is and has gone on in their lives. Have you ever met someone, walked away and thought “what a cranky-pants” or "she's just so sad all the time" or "what's HIS deal?"……maybe you just don’t know their story. That old saying “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover” rang soooooo true for me over these past 3 days. It's a good lesson to be reminded of that we should be careful how we 'see' people and judge people when we first meet them. And that 'happy go lucky' person has a story, too. But they've turned the page. The story is still there.....they're just in a new chapter. And isn't that the challenge for all of us to keep turning the pages and create new chapters in our lives. Exciting chapters, tragic chapters, happy, sad, boring chapters.......they are all there! Just keep creating new ones.....

Jury duty continues for me tomorrow…