From a very young age, my parents taught me to always hold the door for the person behind you. I never really thought of it as something that could teach me a lesson when I became older.
One Spring day close to the end of seventh grade, I was walking back from my flute lesson in the Arts Center to the middle school building. Being one of the youngest kids in my school, I tried to keep contact with upper schoolers limited because only a few actually took time from their day to wave to me in the hallways. As I pushed through the doors I saw a few kids on their way in. It was clear from the distance that was between them that they we not walking together. Out of habit, I waited for the first person to reach the door and held it open for him.
He smiled and said thank you, and his tone of voice told me that he had not expected me to hold the door. I nodded and smiled, and as I was walking away I turned back to see that he had held the door for the girl behind him, and the girl behind him held it for the boy behind her.
I have always heard people say ‘it only takes one kind act to start a wave’ or ‘you can make a difference in someone’s day’. I had never seen it happen naturally, because my schools had always tried to force it by creating days of kindness where you posted what you did on a board and got a prize. Let me tell you, it was astonishing that me, a small seventh grader who no one had ever seen before, could create a chain of goodness.
I don’t think the kid who I held the door for will remember me in ten or twenty years. But I believe that I’ll remember the lesson he helped teach me.
So next time you have the opportunity, be nice to someone. Say hello to a younger kid at school. Give that new coworker a complement. And always, always hold the door.
You never know where it will get you.