Respect Begets Respect

Hello guys! First of all, forgive me for my serial posts, as I did miss my daily post last Friday due to my busy schedule, so my OCD wants me to catch up with that as I made a promise to myself to publish one article a day and I intend to keep that. I also have some realisations and nuggets of wisdom to share today after quite a terrible train ride from Bristol to Bath.

Today the train from Bristol to Bath was quite chaotic and full around noon time that some of us passengers were forced to be on a standing trip near the entrance of the train. We felt like sardines in a can. An elderly lady, realising this had a change of heart and wanted to get off the train as she too had no seats and the seating passengers were not really very polite and chivalrous enough to offer her one.

On the process of getting off the train she inadvertently lightly pushed a girl on her mid 20s and this girl rudely screamed at her, "Can't you see there's no more space?!" I could tell you everyone on the train was quite shocked and appalled by her outburst but she didn't even seem to care. Now this girl was a fellow Asian but I quite was a bit embarrassed to be standing next to her and to be associated to her in anyway.

Clearly, she is not local to the UK too, like me she immigrated to this foreign land. We always cry when we are subjected to racism but we sometimes do not introspect what are some reasons why people have bad impressions about us. I was brought up to be respectful of elders so seeing this impoliteness made me cringe. I could see some British nationals with their judging gaze at this imprudent girl. And even fellow Asians who were petrified. Can you blame them?

Anyway I was glad her friend spoke up and told her off and told her to calm down. But despite that she was adamant she was right. Well perhaps this girl was having a really bad day. And perhaps getting pushed by a towering lady was annoying but there was no way screaming would solve anything. The moment she became rude and disrespectful was the moment she lost others respect. She could have still been polite when delivering her message. You can speak up without having an attitude. Sure the situation is annoying it was so cramped in that train but she's not the only one cramped we all had to endure it too.

With this event I just wanted to point out a couple of things. First, respecting the elderly and respecting other people in general is imperative. Second, being assertive does not need to be corrosive. You can get your message across without being rude. Third, patience is important. Something said in anger cannot be taken back. Fourth, have empathy and consideration towards others. Fifth, be kind and excellent to each other. We are all in this together in this life. We don't need to fight unnecessarily. Instead of spreading hate be kind.