She Remembered My Name

A few weeks back, I was in the Delta Sky Club at LAX when I got the news nobody wants.

My flight was delayed, we would land in Atlanta a couple of hours late, and my connection was gone.

The lounge desk got busy fast.

People were frustrated, and the agents were catching it from every direction.

I get the frustration. I felt it too.

But yelling at the person stuck fixing the problem has never fixed a flight.

When it was my turn, the agent's name was Michelle.

I told her the truth.

I knew the delay was not her fault, and there was no sense in both of us having a bad day over it.

So we talked it through like two people solving a problem, because that is what it was.

We found a way.

She put me on a flight into a different airport, about an hour from where I was headed.

It was not the plan I wanted.

It still got me there.

Fast forward to yesterday.

I walked into that same lounge at LAX, and Michelle spotted me.

She came right over and said hello, by name.

She asked how I was doing and if I needed anything.

I had not done anything special.

I had just been decent to her on a day when plenty of people were not.

That is the part that stayed with me.

Kindness is not complicated, and it is never wasted.

You have no idea what someone is carrying that day, or how long they will remember the way you treated them.

Michelle remembered my name.

All it cost me was a little patience on a delayed afternoon.

Aaron