As a society, we are drawn to the negative. We turn on the news and see murder, war, natural disasters, poverty and all sorts of negative events occuring around the globe. Growing up seeing all this chaos and destruction sometimes made me wonder what the point of living life was with all the bad people out there. I don’t bother watching the news anymore because all it does is make me depressed. Why can’t people treat each other with more kindness and respect?
I think about this a lot in my day-to-day life. Walking around campus, I notice how miserable and unfriendly people seem to be. All I can think to myself is what could you possibly have to be so dismal about? I used to try to smile at the people I made eye contact with when crossing the quad. But I’ve stopped, as no one seems to return it. Maybe I’m just a naturally peppy person who tries to treat others the way I would want to be treated. Maybe I’m crazy for thinking the world needs to change its attitude. I’m not sure.
Despite how downright annoying people can be, I did have a moment this past weekend that made me change my point of view a little bit. I was driving back to school after a relaxing spring break, feeling good with the sunroof open and the music blasting. My house is about three hours away from MCLA. Along the route, before I hit middle-of-nowhere backwoods, is a little Dunkin’ Donuts that is typically a designated bathroom stop. I decided to stop and get a frozen coffee because it had been a long journey, and I felt I deserved a treat. So I pulled into the drive through and fumbled with my wallet while waiting for the speaker to come on for me to order.
Now I’d noticed when I pulled into the drive through that most of the parking lot was empty, save for maybe two or three cars which I assume were employee cars. Needless to say, I figured it wouldn’t be a long wait. After around eight minutes of sitting the speaker came on and told me they would be with me in a moment. Looking ahead, there was one car at the window and one more behind it. No one usually orders that much food, so I sat and waited.
I was waiting for around ten minutes just for my order to be taken. I almost considered driving away when, finally, someone told me they were ready to take my order. I told him I wanted a small frozen coffee with a caramel shot. He told me the total, and I drove up.
The first car I’d originally seen at the window had now pulled off to the side, the second car replacing them. Another wait began. I figured they had ordered a large quantity of food so I turned my music back up a bit and tried to be patient. I was not thrilled to see that all they had ordered were two coffees. But I thought about how stressful it must be to work a drive through and tried to maintain perspective.
Finally the car in front pulled up and it was my turn at the window. I’d already taken out a few ones and was ready to pay. The girl came up to the window and zeroed out what would’ve been my total. Confused, I looked at her with bills in hand.
“Your drink is on the house. We feel bad for making you wait so long, so it’s no charge,” she explained. I was so impressed by their customer service and kindness that they showed me. I would have been perfectly happy to pay, but they insisted it was free. I drove away with my drink, bewildered and amazed at the small act of kindness that had been given to me.
We should all strive to be kinder to each other. Everyone is so caught up in their own selfish needs, they fail to realize how much of a better place the planet would be if we thought of someone else at least once a day. It costs nothing to be kind, and it would do us well to remember that