One of my coworkers whom I had written off as just another cranky loudmouth made me smile today.
We got the chance to converse for a few minutes this morning and, as it turns out, she is a very astute, well-read, and interesting woman! We share a love of history and that is how we happened to start talking.
Previously, I heard her loudly complaining on a couple of occasions about some things at work so I just figured she was a chronic complainer and my internal dialogue kept whispering "be polite, but just avoid her as much as possible."
I do that sometimes because being around consistently negative people is just exhausting to me. However, in this instance (and, interestingly enough, in life in general) I have found that I was so wrong!
I was a jerk for judging her and subsequently writing her off before I got a chance to really interact with her. I'm so glad we just sort of fell into a conversation this morning.