Funny Story

AKA - Why you should be nice to everyone. Yesterday I was walking through the bus station when a man saw me and said hi. I replied back with my own hello, thinking it was a little weird, but not really thinking too much about it - in the South, everyone says hello and "how ya doin'" to everyone else. He then asked me if I lived in New Jersey, and I told him that I did. He asked me which part, and I told him Passaic/Clifton. He told me lives in Jersey City, to which I responded that I didn't know where that was, since I was such a recent transplant to the area. We talked a little about the hurricane situation, he was telling me that he used to live in New Orleans. I told him about my family in Birmingham, and how they had lost power and had a tree down. Throughout the conversation, I thought it was a little weird that this random guy was talking to me, but he seemed nice, and I didn't see any reason to be rude. One thing I have found in New York is that you do see all kinds of stuff, and it actually wasn't that unusual that someone had said hello and told me to have a good day. As we continued to walk through the bus station together and walk towards the exit, I happened to glance at the guy's shirt. It bore the logo of the company that I work for. It then dawned on me. He wasn't a stranger. I work with him. He is one of our landscape foremen, so he is not always in the office; I had only met him once or twice, which is why I didn't recognize him in such a foreign setting. I was so glad that I had been nice to him. Instead of burning bridges or having turned a cold shoulder, I now had a walking companion to work. It didn't take much to be nice, and I am eternally grateful for it.