It’s slowly coming to my attention that people have an uncanny ability to be cold and rude.

I’m not trying to be that person who comes in to complain about how terrible the rest of the world is, the one you start to imagine must have suffered a traumatic childhood or just been left at the altar or something. Rather I’m noticing that people have an uncanny ability to treat one another like crap.

I really have to wonder where things went wrong for some of the people out there. I’m not asking anyone to give thousands to charity or take all the burdens off of all your friends and family. But it’s shocking to me how many people have such a hard time saying “Thank you” to the person serving their coffee or clearing their dishes away after dinner at a restaurant.

The unfortunate thing is, it’s much easier to darken someone’s day than to brighten it. You know how it is – one false step can throw you off for the entire day.

Fortunately it’s easy to give someone a simple pick-me-up.

So my charge to the readers out there isn’t something that will take any real investment of your time or other resources.

The next time you see a member of the cleaning staff in one of the residence halls or another building, say hello. The next time you run across someone tending the grounds of the campus, ask them how their day’s going. And the next time someone does something for you, whether it’s serving you something to drink or just holding a door open for you, say thank you. Trust me, it makes living around here just a bit nicer.