There are many attributes of various professions and hobbies that have become firmly established in everyday life by people who have nothing to do with them. For example, if we see a person in sneakers on the street, it doesn’t actually mean that they just came from the basketball court. Or wearing yoga pants does not mean doing yoga.
And yet there are still situations in which people try to identify others by external attributes - and, having made a mistake, begin to angrily and with rapture brand them ‘imposters.’ For example, this happened to the author of today's story, whom a neighbor mistakenly took for a nurse just because of them wearing scrubs at home.
More info: Reddit
Turns out some people don't take too kindly to others wearing job-related uniforms or else they risk being blamed of being imposters
Image credits: MedicAlert UK / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
The author of the post worked in a pet store for years and they've got a few pairs of scrubs and eventually they left this job and started college
Image credits: anonymous
Image credits: krakenimages.com / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author decided to keep some scrub pants since they were comfortable for everyday wear
Image credits: anonymous
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
When they went outside to check the mailbox recently, the neighbor spotted them and assumed they were a nurse
Image credits: anonymous
After getting a 'no,' the neighbor lashed out at the author, claiming they were 'stealing valor'
So, five years ago, when the Original Poster (OP) was still in high school, they found themselves a part-time job as a kennel technician at a pet store. The author didn’t do anything specific in their job there, they simply helped the vet to take care of the puppies. Nevertheless, at work, the OP received a few pairs of scrubs.
Perhaps the store owner wanted all the employees to look "medical," maybe there was some other reason - we don't know and probably never will. And it actually doesn't matter - especially since the OP left this job after starting college.
The author liked the job, but it wasn’t high-paid, and they really wanted to do without student loans and whatnot. So the OP quit, but they kept part of the uniform. They gave away the shirts, but kept the pants to wear around the house. After all, they're really comfortable...
Then one day the author went out to check the mail wearing one of those pairs of pants. A neighbor who lives near the mailboxes was watering her garden, and she asked the author if they were in college studying to be a nurse, like her daughter. When she received a negative answer, the neighbor suddenly lost her mind.
The woman scolded the OP for the fact that they have no right to wear the scrubs since they're not a nurse, and that it looks like 'stolen valor.' That is, people study for years in college to earn this honorable right - and the author is pretending to be someone they are not.
The original poster was actually baffled by this wrathful speech - simply because they didn’t intend to pretend to be a nurse. But the neighbor did not calm down, and literally that evening also wrote an angry post on Facebook about this incident.
It's good, the OP recalls, that the woman didn’t go into personal details when describing the situation - after all, the commenters, and among them were many neighbors in the area, fully supported her. And so the author, in turn, decided to enlist the support of the folks online.
Image credits: Mikhail Nilov / Pexels (not the actual photo)
On the other hand, scrubs have long been perceived as something inherent only to medical workers. "It's all about convenience and practicality," says Iryna Stasiuk, an expert in syndromic therapy from Odessa, Ukraine, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment on this case. "Moreover, in clinics, scrubs are often worn not only by nurses, but also by workers not directly related to medicine. For example, administrators or technical staff."
Of course, Iryna agrees that in order to become a doctor or a nurse, you need to put in a lot of time, effort and money. But at the same time, scrubs are not a distinguishing feature of a doctor, like shoulder straps or a cap are for a policeman or a soldier.
"I have seen people wearing scrubs at home or in other everyday situations more than once - and no one accused them of stealing valor. It seems to me that this neighbor simply blew a scandal out of literally nothing," Iryna summarizes.
People in the comments to the original post are also pretty sure that the author did nothing wrong and didn’t violate any points of some "unspoken code of honor for nurses." “I’m a nurse and was a surgical technologist before that. There are so many professions that wear scrubs, not just nurses, so she’s making a fuss for no reason," one of the responders reasonably wrote.
Moreover, the commenters ridiculed the phrase ‘stealing valor,’ used by the hapless neighbor. "By her definition of 'stolen valor,' everyone who has ever worn camo is guilty of impersonating a soldier," another person added wittily. And what do you, our dear readers, think about this story? Please feel free to share your comments below the post.
People in the comments, however, unanimously sided with the author, stating that the neighbor wasn't right at all
