An Accidental Framing

Some people work hard to frame others. They put so much time and effort into it, but then there are those who don't need to try at all. Those who put no thought, no effort, and no intent into the frame. Those are the people that accidentally frame another person. Those are the people that I'm a part of.

On Wednesday, October 17th, my roommate and I were innocently walking down our hall. We were on our way pass one of our neighbors' doors when the little white square hanging on their door caught my attention. I had noticed the picture that was drawn on the bored a few days prior to this event. Yet, the little hand drawn fish and seaweed were not what tempted me into action. On no, it was the words that someone had written in black erasable marker above the fish.

"This is Bob," the words declared and a thin-lined arrow connected the words to the fish.

Being who I am, the mischievous person I tend to be and sometimes fail to keep in check, I plucked the magnetic black marker from the door and wrote below the little friendly fishy these words.

"Hi Bob."

Hi Bob. That's all I wrote. Nothing brilliant. Nothing original. Nothing special. Just, "Hi Bob." As I walked away from that door, my mischievous side sated for the time, I thought no further into those words' future. I didn't stop to think what writing those words would do. I didn't stop to think that the person who had passed by my roommate and I in the hall would tell someone that I had been the one to write those words there. Not that I would have cared even if I thought they would.

Hi Bob. Really, what kind of harm could those two words do? Apparently, more than I thought...and that more ended up causing some amusement to rise in me.

It wasn't until Friday or Saturday, I forget which, that those words came back to place a laugh on my lips and a smile on my face. To be honest, by that point I had completely forgotten that I had written that  small message. Hadn't even bothered to look at the bored I had written it on. Yet then, out of the blue, I was walking back to my dorm room when I noticed a group of girls at the end of the hall.

I didn't pay much attention to the girls, I merely kept walking. Now, before I go any further, let me explain something to you. My name's Ashley...there are at least four other Ashley's that live on my university's campus...there's two Ashley's that live on my hall. Understand that? Okay, then let's move on.

As I was saying, I wasn't paying much attention to the group of girls. I was just about to open the door to my room when I heard one of the girls say, "Ashley, Bob thanks you for the message."

Out of habit, I turned towards the girls. That's when my accidental framing came to light.

"What message? And who's Bob?" another Ashley asked, her eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights.

"You know, Bob. The fish on my white board." the first girl attempted to clarify. "So-so (I forgot who she said exactly told her) said that she saw you write 'Hi Bob' on my board."

"It wasn't me," the other Ashley spoke in a confused manner.

At this point, I was in my room, the door opened just enough to let in some of the hall light, and attempting to stifle my laughter.  Without even meaning to, I had managed to frame another Ashley for the simple message that I had written...and I had found it amusing.

When I informed my roommate of this event, she cracked up laughing. She's a Criminal Justice Major with an odd sense of humor and -thankfully -enough out of her mind that she can deal with me and my antics. I believe she gained even more amusement from the situation than I did and has been calling me a criminal since my telling her of the event.

Life is full of crazy little things like theses. Those small events can sometimes cause the greatest outcomes. When I was little, someone told me that a butterfly fluttering it's wings in China could cause a hurricane here in the U.S. It wasn't until I was much older that I realized what they were really saying. It's those little things that can make or brake you in life. They have the power to affect an entire day...or even a week.

That little moment, the laugh I got from the accidental framing, had made my day. It had added some joy into a day where my thoughts were otherwise preoccupied by book reports, reading assignments, and the mysterious language of Fine Arts. It gave me a smile that I had needed and it gave my roommate a laugh tonight, when she needed it. Funny how those little things do that sometimes, isn't it?

One thing's for sure, I thank our Creator for all those little moments, for those glimpses of sunshine. For those moments of laughter. Without them, the world would be a darker place.