What's at the end of your rope?

We have all been there. You wake up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to conquer the day. But quickly it becomes apparent that the forces of the universe are conspiring against you. Your hair won’t fall properly, you’re running late and what the hell is that stain on your shirt?

Take a deep breath.

As your day deteriorates, you can feel your posture change. Your face becomes a crinkled maze of furrowed brows and tight grimaces. And just like your mother said, your face freezes that way. Suddenly, you are surrounded by inconsiderate morons. This makes it increasingly hard for you to be the bigger person and maintain your polite demeanor. Still, you push through and manage to force pleases and thank yous through gritted teeth. But soon you are at the end of your rope.

You find yourself thinking, “If one more person so much as blinks in an annoying way, I’m going to lose it!”  Just then - as if you willed it to happen just by thinking it- someone sets you off.

Take a deep breath.

This person, perhaps unknowingly, has become the mascot of your bad day. As you recount the injustices of the day to anyone within earshot, this person becomes the “last straw”; a dark red cherry on the blighted sundae that was your day. Even if what they did was not the worst thing that happened to you that day, somehow it has become the most atrocious. Because shouldn’t they have sensed you were having a bad day and they should be extra nice? Because don’t they know that you have been dealing with idiots all day and just need someone to demonstrate some manners?

Now stop for a minute, and image you are the mascot of someone’s bad day. You may not even know it, but someone is carrying the image of your face in their head and it is the epitome of all that is wrong and awful. How does that sit with you?

Maybe you didn’t even do anything mean or terrible. Maybe you just didn’t smile when they said “Excuse me” or maybe you bumped them and didn’t say sorry. But if you took the extra 30 seconds to do those things, would it make a difference?

It takes a lot to work someone up enough to really ruin their day. But one simple gesture can be all it takes to disarm them and change the direction of their thoughts.

I recently had a day like the one described above. Except, right when I got to the point where I thought I was going to get real crazy on somebody, someone offered me their seat. It was as if a boiling pot had suddenly been removed from the fire. I could feel my body relax. I smiled and said “Thank you”. And I really, sincerely meant it.

And I realized I never want to be anyone’s last straw. As often as I can, I want to be the one that reminds that person that people have not totally lost their senses. And wouldn’t it be nice to be the face someone carries in their head when they think of how their day got a little bit better?