It's fall. And I don't mean that in a "weather is about to change" type of way. I mean it in an "it's been fall for a while" kind of way. With the trees turning pretty colours comes the inevitable end of summer vacation and time to go back to college. To celebrate the demise of any sort of sleeping schedule next semester, I went to Toronto, Canada.
There, I re-learnt one thing: Canadians are nice...like really nice. My first time visiting, back in 2008, was eye-opening to someone who grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. At that point, I had met my fair share of nice people, but the open inclusiveness and friendliness I was greeted with was on a completely different level in Canada. I was blown away by this, and when I visited this time, I took on a personal challenge: I would try to out-nice Canadians.
Personally, I did not think that it would be that hard. I do live in the South and am a firm believer in common courtesy and Southern hospitality. I think that we should try to be nice and civil, especially with strangers, for it sets a good example and fosters good relationships. It also makes everyone's day better and creates good karma. The South does have the reputation of being civil; simple things like keeping the door open, always saying sorry, giving you space when driving and letting you overtake. All of this made me realize one thing: I had severely underestimated the scale of the task I had set upon myself.
Canadian nice is a whole new level of nice. Some people that I asked for directions even offered to personally escort me the place to make sure I wouldn't get lost. While I was asking for directions to the Tram station, one person told me every turn I would have to make to get to the ticket counter. I had a smile-down contest with someone who kept on insisting that I should go through the door first. After hearing "sorry" for the nth time, I tried (and failed) to keep count of the number of times I heard it uttered.
On my second day here, while I was walking through Toronto downtown trying to find a Tim Hortons, I noticed that people were subconsciously moving out of each other's way. Being nice and trying not to inconvenience others is such a natural part of Canadian lives that it is practically encoded in their DNA.
In Canada, being nice to others is just normal, like checking the scores for the ball game. Faced with such odds, I surrendered, and realized that some people, or in this case, nations, are just better at certain things than others.
