One day, the year it was opening, a friend and I drove, yikes, on the highway, to Canada’s Wonderland, for a job interview.

We both walked in to be greeted by a really, really, REALLY, good looking older man.

He was like, 30 or something.

The combination of the job interview, where Mr Beautiful asked deep and probing questions about what we could bring to the job and having Mr Beautiful alone with each of us behind closed doors, was enough to make me flushed.

When we walked into the parking lot, I said  Jeez, you look as cool as a cucumber, look at my red face!

She said You look fine to me but feel my hands.

They were dripping wet with sweat. Dripping.

I remember this so vividly because it was a pivotal moment to-

Never compare your insides to someone else’s outsides.*

I have told my girls this story and said this line over and over as a point of never making assumptions like I am the only one that...or look at all the shiny, happy people. It is this understanding  that acts as both a comfort and a source of compassion.

Yesterday, I saw this exact quote* in this article about parenting by Rob Lowe.  I couldn’t believe it.

We got the job and grabbed it, hoping to work all summer alongside Mr Wonderful, only to never see him again. Instead, I got followed around by an angry clown on stilts and the odd guy who spent all day in a speedo diving over and over again from the top of the mountain.

But that is a story for another day.