Human beings can be quite awful sometimes

I followed a woman into my apartment this afternoon into the elevator zone that requires key fob access. Afterwards, I said a “thank you” as always to be courteous. The woman turns to me and proceed to give me this glare and said back, “I wasn’t opening the door for you.” At first I didn’t know what to say. In fact, I was a bit taken aback and confused by the initial exchange. What a way to ruin someone’s day. People have the capacity to be so awful sometimes. That woman clearly had some issues going on that’s being unaddressed. She sort of ruined my day in that instance. It’s funny how a seemingly random occurrence can do that sometimes.

But that got me thinking a bit more. If people have the capacity to hurt as that woman in the entryway did, then the opposite can also be true. I think it’s really up to us as decent individuals to take it upon ourselves to uphold a sense of civility in our day-to-day interactions.