This is my first ever post, and I am not entirely familiar with how everything is supposed to work, but I hope you guys enjoy my story.

A little backstory first. I am a teacher at a middle school in medium size city in Texas. Teachers at my school have a decent dress code, for men dress shirts and dress pants are recommended, but solid color polo shirts are fine as a substitute. I am a hefty sized man, with a neck thicker than my skull and so I generally opt to wear polos for comfort reasons. We also are required to wear a lanyard with our school id at all times.

This happened a few months ago.

One day after school I needed to go to Walmart to pick up some supplies, but I also like to browse the aisles looking for anything nerdy. ( I like to decorate my classroom with nerdy items, my kids like to point out all the decorations and I get along really well with my students.) I am slowly walking through the aisles, without a basket because I didn't plan on getting much I only needed a few things for school. Near the pharmacy a man around 40 came up to me and asked where he could find clothes hangers. I was kinda stunned for a second thinking, why is this guy asking me? I told him I think it's in the home decor section, but that I wasn't for sure. He thanked me and left. I thought it was a weird interaction, but didn't think much of it after that.

Later I am at the electronics section, and an elderly lady came up and asked me where she could find lightbulbs. Again I thought, why is she asking me, especially when there is a Walmart employee 15 feet away behind the electronics desk. I actually knew where it was and pointed here in the right direction and off she went. I then thought it was so weird that 2 different people came to ask me for help. Being that I've lived in Texas my whole life, I was familiar with the kindness of strangers and thought it was just a case of that. I am not one to turn people away without at least attempting to help.

After I collected my items I headed to self checkout, and waited in line for a register to open. The guy in line behind me decided to strike up a conversation, starting with "Just getting off work huh?" I was confused at first, thinking, how did this guy know I just got off work, how does he even know where I work? Then I remembered my school id badge. I assumed he saw my badge and being that this was right after school let out, it made sense. I told him yeah, just getting some supplies before heading home. He then said "Yeah, I used to work in a Walmart as a teenager. Not my favorite job."

Huh? What does Walmart have to do with me being a teacher? I just said cool story bro, then paid for my items and left. On the ride home I thought "That was the weirdest trip to Walmart I have ever had" not including the time I was a teenager and my friends and I got kicked out for playing football in Walmart at 2 AM. Story for another time.

I get home and drop off my stuff, that's when I realized it. I looked at the mirror and saw I was wearing a solid blue polo shirt, khakis, and I had my id badge hanging on a blue lanyard. I looked like a Walmart employee. Everything made sense all of a sudden, and I saw all those interactions in a different light. I am really glad I was so mellow about it at the time, because I can imagine after the 4th or 5th person asking me for help, I might have lost it and yelled at them saying " WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME FOR!"

I later have gone to Walmart and actually looked at the uniform. They didn't wear blue polos and khakis, they wore any kind of t-shirt, jeans, and a blue Walmart vest on top. While I can still understand people mistaking me for an employee, I was obviously not in the correct dress code.

Thanks for reading my post, I hope it was entertaining.