A Random Act of Kindness?

"Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the and the blind can see."
~Mark Twain

This week I did something that fascinated me! A Random Act of Kindness can make someone’s day that much brighter and if you’re an optimist, you know its going to be passed on. Now I’ve done the Tim Horton’s drive through, talked to a stranger, picked up litter and held doors open but I thought I would tackle a ‘real student issue.’ Grand River Transit is something that everyone likes to complain about but it is a service that so many students use and in any type of service, the patrons according to proper etiquette are to be overly kind.

The following is a direct transcript of my conversation going onto the bus:
Me: Good Afternoon
Bus Driver: Hello, How are you?

In a way, this was a way for the bus driver to test if I was being an active listener, and truth be told I was not expecting it, I replied: ‘Alright How are you?’ and he said to me, ‘excellent.’

A little later on the bus drive, an elderly woman got on, there were empty seats at the front of the bus and no one was standing, the bus driver joked with the woman that she would have to fight around university students to get a seat, and the elderly woman walked to the second level to grab a seat beside one of these students.

Honestly, I don’t quite know what the bus driver meant. Was he joking? Does he feel disenfranchised because of the amount of university students on the bus and our overall perception?

On my way out, I took the front door exit and told the bus driver to have a good afternoon. His sincerity in his ‘thank you’ had a certain amount of genuine surprise as if a student had never been nicer.

True, I was trying to be extra nice but this was a lesson. The reality is the bus is always packed especially the rush hour student buses. Like our lives, the bus can appear to be over crowded and we don’t have the space we need in our lives but manners go a long way in our society and as Mark Twain believed, Kindness is a universal language. What I liked about my Random Act of Kindness is that it didn’t cost money, it wasn’t hard and it was more than worth it. Try the Random Act of Kindness sometime, I dare you; It will be more than worth it. Post your stories in the comment section ~ don't worry it doesn't need to be as long as this blog entry...