See, What Had Happened Was

Have you ever noticed that whenever a person uses a variation of "What had happened was..." they are telling a lie? If it's not a complete lie, then a misrepresentation of the truth. Think about it.

I never really noticed it until I was in college. One event in particular drove that fact home. The college I was attended has failed to enter all the Financial Aid information in the system; which resulted in over half of the student body being kicked out of the system. Many of us were in danger of losing our housing in the dorms unless we had the mess straightened out. The problem was that only ONE person could fix the problem in the system and she didn't like to work. We camped outside this woman's office for almost a week. When she finally made an appearance, she was really rude and tried to blow us off. Fed up, a group of us decided to head to the President's Office. I will never forget it . This woman ran up 3 flights of stairs in a too tight leather skirt to beat us to the President's Office.

She didn't beat us there, but as we were speaking to the President's secretary, she came busting in the Office. "See, what had happened was..." is how she started. No hello, no pause to see what we were saying. "What had happened was..." she interuppted us breathlessly. I can't remember the rest of the story she told (I was too busy watching her gasp for breath and secretly hoping she would pass out).

After that incident, I began to notice how often people start an excuse with those words. I transferred to another college, and still I encountered the "What had happened" phenomenon. I mentioned it to my mother, who thought it was funny at first (ok, she still thinks it's funny) but she had to agree. Usually when people start a sentence with "What had happened was..." it's going to be a lie.

So when someone asked me why I hadn't posted in almost a month; I couldn't help but say "Well, see, what had happened was..."