If I had a dollar for every time someone called me nice, I would be on a permanent vacation somewhere tropical. I'm not saying this to brag, or to complain--it's just an honest observation. I am typically mild-mannered and was raised to be polite. Some people have admitted to me that upon meeting me, they assumed my "niceness" was fake, or a front, or would go away after meeting me again. And for some people, it surely has--being nice doesn't mean I'm a pushover. But it costs nothing at all to be nice and respectful to people deserving of it.
Currently we're in a culture where people describe themselves as being heartless and actually brag about being careless. If you Google search "black like my soul," 128,000,000 results will come up, ranging from t-shirts, mugs, and internet memes.Our millennial generation takes pride in being the one who cares the least in a friendship or in a relationship. How it became popular to pretend to feel nothing at all is something that needs to change.
So besides being nice to the people in our lives, what about people we don't know? There's a reason why people love to hear stories about people "paying it forward"--because it is comforting to hear stories of people's kindness in situations where they did not "owe" that person anything. Once a friend and I sat at a counter at a breakfast place and began a short conversation with the woman next to us. We learned about what she did for work, and we told her about our lives as college students. As she was leaving, the waiter informed us that the woman paid for our meals. She was halfway out the door; we barely got the opportunity to thank her. This action may appear small, but such an unexpected act of kindness genuinely brightened my day.
So when you can, wait the extra second to hold the door open for the people behind you. If it's within your means, pay for the person behind you at Dunkin' Donuts in the hopes that maybe it will brighten their day, maybe even their week. Smile at the person you made eye contact with that's walking past you. Who knows, you could be the only person who smiles at them all day. And maybe by making a conscious effort to be a better listener or a more involved friend you'll find that being nice is pretty nice.
