28. Being nice.

I hate everyone, but life is just so much easier if you're polite.

-a friend

A while ago, I got very angry at a stranger. I rented a car from him, he never delivered the service and refused to return my money for the longest time. He made me call him three times, and only paid me back once I made an official complaint about him to his superior. Having trouble getting my money back was annoying. What made me see red, however, was him being rude to me. After ranting and raving about him, I acknowledged that had he tried to explain the situation and apologized, I would have been much more accommodating.

I am the kind of person who always greets the bus driver, holds doors open for old ladies, tells people she doesn't even like their hair is nice, asks people how they are, and smiles at strangers on the street. I wish I could say it's because I am altruistic and love the universe at large, but mostly it boils down "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". If I smile at a person, they are likely to smile back and make me feel better about my life. If I give feedback on a unimate's paper, they will probably help me out with mine. If I act like a bastard but apologize and explain why I was being an idiot, people will be more likely to forgive me.

There is also the added bonus of how it feels nice to be nice. Anger and pessimism are such exhausting feelings. Sometimes I'll be grumpy but paste on a smile only to get such a lovely response that I actually start to feel better. It's such a bloody cliché, but sometimes things do come back two-fold.