Saturday, September 22, 2007

Karma?

I'm a real bitch sometimes, seriously. But I hide it well. My inner bitch only comes out when I'm with the one I love, which is to say, I love him so much I can let myself go. To most people, however, I'm rather nice. I make friends easily, I've never been in any sort of friend fight and I always try to treat any person working for/with me with the utmost respect. I know that this means something too.

When I say "working for" I'm referring to any person who has a job serving other people,whether it be in food, sales, or anything where they have to fill another person's needs. In school I've noticed it really counts. In my mind it's second nature to treat people with respect, and I've noticed that it doesn't go unappreciated.

Where I live we have one convenient dining option for school, a cafeteria that's located literally right underneath the dorm building. I obviously eat there quite often, or at least get food for take out. I haven't eaten one meal there, which is mainly because I've always hated eating in cafeterias and subsequently hate all the noise and people around me, however I've noticed my fair share of terrible student etiquette.

While waiting in line for something to be prepared I've seen kids talking on their cell phones, making these terribly annoying and specific requests of the food (y'know, the vegan skinny guys who want only 7 mushrooms in their dish, no more no less), and generally treating the wait staff like they're poor slime. It's seems so rude to me and I can tell how much the staff doesn't appreciate it just by their tone or the shaking of their head. At times I take pity on them, I mean this isn't a great job and they don't need snotty art school students making it more difficult. Which is why I always treat them with respect. I patiently wait for them to notice me, if a dish is already prepared I don't ask for certain things to be taken out (like if it has onions in it, which I don't really want, I'll still take it instead of having them make an entire new sauce just for me), and I never act like I'm in a hurry and need my food now. Most importantly, I always say, "Thank you".

It does make a difference, I get smiles and cheerful hellos, sometimes I even get more food than other people because I'm always nice to the staff. It's little things like that, random acts of kindness, that I'd like to think help make both our lives easier. I can't imagine being rude to the person preparing your food, I thought that was the cardinal rule of comestible purchase, always be nice. Even if I'm feeling crappy being greeted by the staff in a way that makes it seem like they do want to serve me, is always a lovely experience.

Random acts of kindness are what make living in this world more bearable. Be nice to the people who serve you, no matter how pissed off or tired you are, in the end it makes a difference.

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