Daily, each of us interacts with countless people. Just being a few people ahead of a woman in the grocery store line is interacting, it creates an instant or gradual effect on the person watching. Thus, if we are so surrounded by opportunities to encourage and edify just the people that pass on the sidewalk, why don't we? Smiles and small favors are all that do the trick.

During swim team yesterday, a moderately slow and poorly-taught swimmer was in my lane. Routinely, she'd stop when she knew she was holding the rest of the swimmers up and patiently wait for the whole population of our lane to pass. I had just finished a lap when it happened, the event that shaped my day and definitely a moment of revelation. As I stopped at the wall, I spotted the girl in the yellow cap leaning against it, absently allowing much of the lane to pass.

Knowing I am a speedier swimmer, I wondered what it would hurt to allow her swim in front for the remaining ten minutes left of practice. Realizing it would do more good than hurt, I asked the yellow cap girl, "You wanna go?" And, she simply said "Yes, please," with a lighthearted and grateful tone. It broke my heart to hear those words, speaking volumes through their two syllables. The deed I did was not off of a checklist for being kind, nor for my self-gain. Instead, it was presenting the I'll-just-sit-on-the-floor-it's-no-big-deal girl with a gift that cost me nothing and maybe was priceless to her. Most of the other swimmers (you would think they were competing in the Olympics by their intensity - newsflash- it's just high school swim team!), if not all, swam around her, were entitled and dismissed her from their thoughts instantly. But she deserved more than that. And for the whole ten minutes left of practice, I struggled to not touch her toes as I was too close behind her, but it was worth the while for the girl to apprehend what she merited and how none can arrest that.