Aubrie Edmond, Contributing Writer

Recently, I have been trying to practice kindness and patience towards myself, towards others, and towards the world. Last week, I was waiting in line at the Starbucks on my college campus during a short break I had between my classes. I had about twenty minutes and had gotten about four hours of sleep the night before because I was up studying for an important test. The line was absurdly long, but I knew that I would not make it to my exam without any coffee. The two girls in front of me were so wrapped up in a conversation that they were completely unaware of the line’s snail-like movement, and everyone behind them was beginning to get bunched up in the back corner of the building. They were obviously freshmen, they had that bright and excited look in their eyes of newfound freedom that fades after the first six to eight months of college. We moved forward slowly, and by the time we got to the point where the two of them were the only people in front of me, the line had taken so long that there was no way I would make it to my next class on time. All of a sudden, a boy appeared out of nowhere, looked at the line, and joined the two girls. I was baffled and angry, but I kept my mouth shut and took a deep breath. The first girl walked towards the cashier, and then again, another boy walked in front of me and joined them in the line. I had assumed they would all go to the cashier together, but they each went individually, taking about fifteen minutes altogether to decide what they wanted to order.

If this had happened to me at any other time, I probably would have said something to them. The weekend prior, I experienced someone getting so mad at me on the road that he rolled down his window to yell at me, and instead of yelling back, I smiled and waved. I realized how much lighter I felt after that than I would have if I had responded out of anger, and I have been trying to incorporate that sentiment into more aspects of my everyday life. While this was not exactly an instance of kindness, it was enough of a deviation from normalcy for me that I decided making a change was actually important. The world has been feeling a lot less kind recently, and if that’s something that I notice within myself, why wouldn’t I change it?