Kindness in New York

I experienced a funny thing this morning. After I woke up at 6:30, dragged my butt out of bed, ran 3 miles (yee!), took a shower, fed the cat, and left for work I found myself barreling through the Columbus Circle subway traffic as usual.

When you first move to New York, you still act like you would if you were anywhere else; you try not to be rude, move aside for people in a rush, and keep a semi-worried look on your face. That all changes after a couple months in the city. Anyone who has ever spent significant time here knows that the only way to get where you are going is not to lose focus. You have to keep your head up and walk straight, knocking into anyone in your path, keeping the "you-stupid-tourists-better-stay-the-hell-out-of-my-way-if-you-know-what's-good-for-you" face on. Sometimes when someone elbows you extra hard, you get a little irritated. You might throw your arms up or mutter a string of four letter words under your breath. On less proud days, you might actually comment to the person how you think they are incredibly rude. I, myself, would NEVER.....

Well, this morning I was arriving to the subway and, of course, the 1 train was pulling in letting of crowds of busy commuters when some jerk ran into me really hard. I mean I-almost-dropped-my-umbrella hard, if you can imagine that. Well, I after being shoved around already a lot this morning, I just about lost it. I turned around, face red, ready to let the asshole have it, when...

"I'm so so sorry, are you ok?"

My red face soon turned pink with embarrassment at the idea that I might even dream of raising my voice to the very kind gentleman, who clearly didn't mean to run into me like that.

"No, no, sorry!" I screamed, following the river of people towards the D train.

It's funny how quickly your opinion of someone can change with a simple kind word. This is where I should interject and say, "we should all say kind things more," which is true. Also it proves that there are still considerate people in Manhattan. I was beginning to think they were disappearing. Hell, a good friend of mine who is just starting to show her baby bump even said that people have given their seats up for her on two separate occasions! Can you believe it?

On a sidenote, I've recently become completely obsessed with this website. You can track everything you eat, how much you work out, and what your goals are and it tells you where you need to be. It tracks your water intake and tells you what nutrients you need more of, or have enough of. I'm trying to start a revolution at work. So far I have 4 people signed up.