Today I am participating in Journal Day from
Sometime's Sweet. Here is the prompt from Danielle:
The older we get, the more certain we get about who we are and what our purpose is. For me, a lot of it is still unknown, but as I make my way down my own path, I have begun to realize that there are indeed some inevitable truths that I know for sure. On your own blog, write a post that talks about "the one thing you know for sure."
When I was a young girl my father would always tell me, "Always be polite, Wendy. Treat every person with respect." As I grew older my dad modeled this behavior for me when he never accepted his change at the grocery store without saying thank you, when he would go out of his way to help a stranger with a broken down car, and when he would stop what he was doing to search the neighborhood for a little boy's missing dog. I grew up believing that every person was important and should be acknowledged and respected. Throughout my life I was at times uncertain about the person I was, and who I wanted to be, but I always knew that I had to honor the people that I came in contact with.
When I was 16 I started working. My first job was at Taco Bell, and I was the girl who took your order inside the restaurant. I learned a lot from my early experiences in the working world, but the most important thing I learned was the value of what my father had taught me. Many times the people I served would be impatient, short, and down-right rude to me. I suppose they thought that I was just some dumb kid working at a fast food restaurant. Maybe they thought I didn't matter because they would never see me again. I can still feel the lump in my chest that was so common in those days when I would smile and say good afternoon to a costumer and they would ignore me completely. It hurt to know that I was so unimportant to those people that they couldn't even acknowledge me. I realized that a lot of people think that when they are "better" than someone, they have the right to be disrespectful.
I kept working throughout school. Eventually I worked in costumer service at Target, and since I was the person who had to deal with unhappy customers, I was mistreated constantly. People would call me names, insult my intelligence, sometimes even threaten me (all because I couldn't return a $15 shirt). And while it hurt, in the back of my mind I always told myself to be glad that I was raised by parents who knew the value of being polite and respectful. So when my work day was over and I was on the opposite side of things, I took those lessons with me. And years later, I still do. When the girl giving me a pedicure at the nail salon asks me if I have kids, I answer her and I ask her about her kids, too. When the homeless man on the street asks me for change, I answer him, even if I'm only carrying a debit card. When my cashier at Target says good morning, I say good morning right back. Because they are people with value. And they deserve to be acknowledged and respected.
And now that I have my own daughter to raise, and you'd better believe she will always say her "please" and "thank you"s. I may not have all the answers, but this is one thing that I know for sure.
