Day Thirty: How Considerate is Too Considerate?

I think it's safe to say that we all know someone who is really, really nice. These are the people that go out of their way to hold a door for you when you're twenty-five feet away, or let you get in front of them in the grocery line because you have a loaf of bread, and they have twenty-seven items. They're the people who you can't imagine ever getting really, REALLY angry, and they might even be the same people who will get you coffee while they're out because they heard you say you were sleepy. These are the people that are maybe, just possibly, too nice.

I would venture to claim that on occasion, in some ways, I might be one of these people. Although I definitely get angry, and somewhat often. These people aren't even "nice," so much as "considerate." They are extraordinarily considerate in a world of people who talk on cell phones at unacceptable volumes in enclosed public places at inappropriate times, and will be so wrapped up in their own personal messes that they don't think to hold the door for you when you're five feet away, angrily glaring at the back of their head. So even though I consider myself to be extremely considerate of others (it's not a compliment, it's a fact. If you knew me, you'd agree), still, I have met people who are nicer and more considerate than myself. And it's a little unnerving.

Such people are too considerate. People who restrain what is possibly best for themselves at the time because it would inconvenience or irritate someone else is too considerate. I am too considerate. If I find a hair in my food in a restaurant, I don't say anything, I just stop eating. If I need to ask where something is located in a store because I can't find it, I will feel bad bothering the employee lazily stocking shelves, wishing they were elsewhere, who has little to no job satisfaction. I will curse angrily in a flourish of colorful swearwords as cars don't let me merge in on the Expressway, but I won't attempt to move in. I, like other overly considerate people, are losing out on life or hindering my own progress because I think too much of others.

So for myself and others like me, vow to think about the next time you're thinking of someone else. Would you be annoyed if someone asked you for decaf instead of regular? You might not be inconsiderate, but rather forward and direct about what you want. Nobody respects people who let others walk all over them. I promise I'll try, if you try.