Inappropriate social behavoir or just being friendly? My goal for the week.

This morning, I took my usual walk around the plant with my (for lack of a better word) mentor. He has been in the metals industry for over fifty years and is as enthusiastic towards showing me the ropes as I could imagine a first-year-kindergarten-teacher would be.

Something that I love about our walks in the morning is that his lessons extend far beyond metals (though he does a great job there too; I hate to brag, but I can identify all sorts of brass and bronze alloys just by looking at them--jealous?). He tells me about the philosophies that guided him through raising his kids, about how he fell in love (and proposed to his wife--best story ever, will share another time), about how he continues to stay positive even on the worst of days. He has a permanent smile on his face, and his signature phrase is “everything's great, my man/my dear." Who couldn't use a few lessons from this man?

But this morning on our walk, he said something to me that really stuck. As we walked, we stopped to say hi to the guys who work in the plant like we always do, but this time as we walked away he looked at me and said, “you know that smiling and saying hi will make their day just that much better, every single day!”

It is so easy to convince yourself that everyone else is always in a hurry, that they don't want to be bothered, that a simple 'hello' will be a terrible inconvenience in their day. Especially in LA, where, let’s be honest, people aren’t always the most approachable, I seem to always forget that human connection is something that we universally crave. (Look at me, typing my thoughts in front of the computer instead of sharing them with a friend in person... talk about a digital era!) But this week I am going to take a step towards interactions that are personal, that are human, and that will make my days just that much better, every single day. So starting now, I will smile at everyone I pass--from the person working out next to me at the gym to a passerby on the street to my roommates even when they don't do their dishes (ha). Wish me luck!