As a former employee of many restaurants over a period of six years, I’ve had the fortune of interacting with many different personalities from all aspects of life. Throughout these interactions, my curiosity over the matter of courtesy lingered in the forefront of my mind. As my thought and speculation grew, I began to not just search for courtesy in the customer service setting but in a broader sense of my everyday life. In my day-to-day observations, I focused on looking for thoughtful acts, no matter how significantly small or grandiose they seemed, that consisted of politeness, respectfulness, and above all the display of consideration, which in turn, would create an effectively positive outcome in the life of one or lives of many. In short, the simple act of being nice. With this in mind, I realized, after analyzing the world around me, that it wasn’t courteousness, but rather, the unfortunate lack there of that was found to be most prevalent.

What a shock it was to unveil that one of the easiest acts of human civility was found to be rusty in so many active lives! With a few instances of real life observations and examples, I will attempt to convey the importance of and more realistically define acts of courtesy.

Courtesy is not the act of rushing toward a restaurant entrance, in front of other people, in order to get your name one position ahead of theirs on a waitlist. All the while, you subsequently did not hold the door for the people who were mere seconds behind. In a courteous world the scenario would follow more along the lines of: You proceed towards the entrance in a civil manner, and the people that reach the door before you open it out of politeness for you to enter before them. Even though both scenarios produced the same outcome, they differ in how negatively or positively they effected everyone involved. Having witnessed both of these scenarios with my own eyes has helped me become aware that the absence of rudeness allows more room and invites the opportunity for politeness to emerge.

Courtesy is not disrespecting your roommates’ belongings by breaking something of theirs and not telling them about it. It is similarly disrespectful when you eat someone else’s food without asking. The sheer act of confessing the truth of your error or the act of asking for permission displays an impressionable amount of respect that will be positively received and returned.

Courtesy is not running a moped off the side of the road causing the passenger of the bike to fly through the air, hit the ground rolling on cement then grass, only to drive away with no consideration or hesitation. In contrast, there are a few considerate people who, for example, dismantle your entire side view mirror from sideswiping your parked car. Instead of un-thoughtfully driving away, they leave an apologetic note with their name, number, and insurance information. I’d like to believe that most people would act as considerately as the person in scenario two acted. However, after experiencing a few accidents myself and