We were always told never to judge anyone by the way they look, and entrepreneur Andy Ross certainly proved this to be true.

Andy is a veteran who owns a hunting business and works in construction. One day, he decided to stop by a store to grab a few things after work. He noticed a little girl who kept staring at him while he was standing in the checkout line.

The girl might have been curious because Andy had a pretty hectic schedule at work that day, and he hadn’t cleaned up yet.

The girl must have assumed certain thoughts immediately based on his appearance. What shocked him next is what the little girl’s mom said to her.

The mom told her to stop staring but continued checking out her groceries. While they were heading out the door to the exit, Andy overheard the mom say something stunning about him to her little girl:

“That is why you need to stay in school,” she said.

Andy wanted to ignore the mom’s rudeness, but he decided to intervene to make a point. He took a second and told her that he happened to be a “very educated dirty man.”

Andy not only own a high school degree, but also a college degree. Aside from that, he also has an impressive number of medical certifications. Andy is the co-owner of a business called Evergreen State Outdoors.

He politely told her that assuming that he isn’t educated because of how he looks is quite ignorant. Telling her daughter to stay in school simply because Andy has tattoos on his arms would, quite possibly, suppress her creativity and might hinder her imagination as she develops.

“I am proud of my tattoos and artwork that Forrest Bateman put on my body. It’s a representation of my pride in my country and my service over many combat tours as a special operations medic. ”

Andy also explained that even though he has a very high level of education and he is a business owner, he choses to work in the construction industry as he likes hard work and is not comfortable working behind a desk. He loves working with his hands and in the outdoors. Andy is proud to say that he is part of building America and he takes pride in his job every day. He said that he is making good money, has benefits, and is able to provide for his family without any issue.

“So my appearance reflects nothing to do with my level of intelligence or pursuing a higher level of education,” Andy told her. The mom simply could not believe what she was hearing. At the end, he told them to have a good day and to try not to judge people before they know anything about them.

Andy feels that his story needs to be shared with others. It is crazy that this mom felt that she needed to look down and degrade a person in front of her daughter based on their appearance only. Hopefully this story serves as a learning experience for everyone out there to not judge people based on their appearance.