A Karen walked up to her and claimed she was sitting on a seat she had “reserved.” But how can she reserve a chair when they’re at the shopping mall? It’s just crazy!
A Younger Facade
OP (Original Poster) has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, or EDS, a genetic disorder that affects collagen. Aside from many other symptoms, it makes people look younger than their actual age.
So even though OP is 32 years old, she often gets mistaken for a teenager. She also dresses in a goth or punk style, which adds to that.
The Downsides of EDS
The disorder also often causes Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which means that standing upright for an extended period of time causes OP’s heart rate to increase and her blood pressure to decrease. So, the longer she’s standing, the worse it gets.
OP added, “If I’m standing for too long, I black out. I take medication that helps a lot, but I’ve had to stop taking it in order to get the Coronavirus vaccine, so my heart rate and blood pressure are completely uncontrolled at the moment.”
A Typical Day at the Mall
When this story was posted, OP had just arrived at her local shopping mall; when she did, she suddenly got a wave of dizziness. It was an indication that she needed to sit before she could fall down.
There were three armchairs that customers could use, and OP sat down in one with an empty shopping cart next to it since the other two seats were already taken. OP checked her numbers with a blood pressure monitor she always carries and saw that her blood pressure was 105/68, and she had a heart rate of 138 bpm, so she took a few salt tablets and scrolled through Reddit while waiting for things to improve.
Real-Life, Stereotypical Karen
About two minutes later, a woman marched over to OP and “barked” at her to get out of the seat she’d “clearly reserved” by leaving the empty trolley next to it. For OP, she certainly acted like a “Karen.”
She added, “Karen matched the stereotype in every conceivable way and looked to be 45 to 50 years old.”
The Seating Argument
OP told Karen that the seats were for everyone’s use and people left empty carts all over the shopping mall, so that didn’t mean anything.
She wrote, “During previous disputes about seating, I’ve sometimes told people I couldn’t move anyway because of my condition, but it’s never seemed to help the situation and is none of their business, so I don’t tend to mention it unless it’s genuinely necessary.”
Lying About Her Youth?
Karen, with a hand on her hip, told OP that she didn’t ask for her “idiot opinions” and that when an “adult” tells her to jump, the only response should be “How high?” OP laughed at Karen’s remarks and told her, “Lady, I’m 32 years old, and I don’t answer to you. Leave me the hell alone.”
With that, Karen scoffed and said, “Bulls***! Don’t you dare lie to me! Where the bloody hell are your parents?”
She Wants That Seat!
OP told Karen it was “none of her business” and to stop harassing her because she was not moving, no matter what she did. As OP said that, an older man stood up from one of the armchairs, groaning and rolling his eyes.
She gestured to the seat and told Karen, “There you go, Karen; there’s a free seat right there. Happy now?” But Karen responded with a “misplaced air of superiority,” folded her arms, and said, “That’s your seat. This one is mine, and you are going to move, young lady!”
Lashing Out
OP couldn’t deal with Karen anymore, so she just laughed, said “no,” and returned to her phone. With that, Karen went crazy and shouted, “Get your fat a** out of my f****** chair,” and kicked the side of OP’s seat hard enough to make her jump.
Stunned, OP said, “Wow, you’re legitimately crazy, aren’t you?”
Playing the Victim
One of the cleaning staff noticed the dispute and came over to them. She told the woman to calm down and asked OP if there was a need to call security.
But before OP could say yes, Karen jumped in and said, “Please do!” She then turned to OP and told her, “I would love to see security drag you out by your ear!”
Who’s Telling the Truth?
The security guard quickly responded and immediately asked OP about the problem, but Karen jumped in again. She told the guard that OP, a “stroppy little brat,” had “pushed her out of her seat” and “stole it” from her, saying that it was clearly hers since she put the empty cart there.
The guard turned to OP to hear her side, and she said, “Actually, like I told her, I’m 32 years old, and she didn’t show up until after I’d sat down. She said she’d reserved the seat, and I told her that’s not how it works. She’s been harassing me to get me to move, and your colleague here saw her shouting and kicking the chair.”
What Karen Wants, Karen Gets!
Karen gasped at OP’s statement, pointed a finger at her, and accused her of being a “lying little b****,” but the cleaner backed OP up. Calmly, the guard told Karen that she couldn’t just claim or reserve seats she wasn’t even using, and if she wanted to sit down, there were now two available chairs, as the third person sitting there earlier had already left.
However, Karen was adamant about getting what she wanted, so she furiously said, “Listen here. You will make her move, or I will be having words with your manager!”
Choose One
The security guard sighed and told Karen that she had two options: either she could walk away, leave OP alone, and get on with her day, or he would be escorting her out of the establishment. But, of course, Karen had to go with a third option.
OP wrote, “She scoffed and stammered and eventually opted to shout about how ‘un-f******-believable’ this all was and that she was going to the center management’s office to get the security guard and the cleaner fired ‘right f****** now,’ and stormed off—without her empty trolley, of course.”
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Unfortunately, OP doesn’t know what happened to her after she walked out. The security guard let the woman leave and apologized to OP for her behavior.
OP said, “I told him it wasn’t his fault and that I was sorry he and the cleaner had to deal with s*** like that, too.”
Unbelievable People
The guard excused himself and said he should probably follow the woman to make sure that she made it to the center manager’s office without any trouble along the way. OP was left talking with the cleaner, discussing how ridiculous and childish people can be.
OP added, “She told me this was far from the worst or weirdest she’d seen and that I wouldn’t believe the s*** some people do, but didn’t elaborate.”
One Good Thing Came Out of It
On a positive note, that incident helped increase OP’s blood pressure, so she stayed for another 10 minutes to let her heart rate level out. After that, she could get up and carry on with her day.
Redditors’ Opinions
People sympathized with OP’s condition and couldn’t believe how others could feel so entitled to many things.
A commenter said, “Clearly, Karen got even more bitter because she looked exactly like she did yesterday when she was 32 years old all those millions of years ago. When I saw the title, I thought for sure she was saying it about a train seat, but no! It was the bench in a mall! Who the hell thinks they can ever reserve that?”
Another person wrote, “I empathize with you! I’ve been diagnosed with Idiopathic orthostatic hypotension, and my heart rate tends to get wonky when my blood pressure drops into the basement! When I need to sit down fast, I need to sit down fast and stay there until the room stops spinning!”
A Difficult Life
Others wanted to share their experiences with OP to show her she wasn’t alone.
A Redditor commented, “You have my complete sympathies; people making snap judgments on people with invisible disabilities are impossible to deal with because they’ve already made up their minds before they open their mouths to spew the offal that is used for communicating. You could have any god you care to name write, ‘You’re wrong, Karen,’ in blazing letters in the sky, and they’d still stick to their guns because, in their delusional world, only they know the truth.”
The same person added, “You should see some of the looks I get when I take up the priority seating on a train because the wall behind them offers more protection from the sun—to which I am allergic—than the other seats next to the windows. Thankfully, I’m getting increasingly grey, so people may be assuming I’m older than I look these days.”
What would you do if this happened to you? Do you feel for OP?
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This post first appeared as A Karen Demanded She Give Up Her Seat, Saying She’d “Reserved” It. She Refused to Stand, and the Woman Went “Crazy,” Accusing Her of “Stealing” Her Spot! Was She Wrong? on Quote Ambition.
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