This is a personal essay I wrote a couple of years ago for a college class. While this essay is not up to date with my most current life experiences, my opinion on the subject remains unchanged.

Do you know what really blows me away about some people I share this planet with? Some seem to have an inability to be polite to others.

Imagine you’re a kid again.

Now imagine it’s your birthday party. Let’s say you’re turning six years old. The boisterous party surrounds your scrawny shoulders. A gift box shifts in your hands, polka-dot paper ready to be shredded mercilessly. Within seconds, the wrapping scatters the grass of your backyard.

You toss the box to the ground in celebration of your new deck of cards or stuffed animal or board game. In this image, can you imagine what your mom or dad, standing over your shoulder, would prompt you to do?

“What do you saaaayyy?” comes the polite and cheerful command from your parent. To which six-year-old you murmurs: “Thank you.”

I strongly believe it was these years of my parent’s training (and their kind personalities in general) that led me to be so polite.

For me, the “thank you” is already perched on the tip of my tongue long before I see the waiter coming with the tray for my table. Every sentence I say to every person outside my immediate family is an ice cream sundae finished off with a cherry on top, and the cherry is a chirpy “please.” To be honest, someone could be beating me to the ground, slamming their fists into my flesh — like really letting me have it — and I would probably thank them for stopping.

There are plenty of people who are like me in this respect, but my compulsion for politeness comes with a total lack of understanding over how others don’t function this way.

I am suffocatingly baffled by people in public who are outright rude or mean to customer service members, fellow shoppers or diners, et cetera. It seems to be an epidemic.

I’ve never had a terrible customer service experience, but I work as a dining hall employee at my college, and after spending hours at a time behind a counter of a serving station, I have come to expect a lack of gratitude from the students who dine there. In one three-hour shift, I’ll receive an average of two “thank you”s. Two. Most just take their greedy hands, grab plates, and book it away. When I work, I don’t know if I look as sad and bored as most of the student employees who work at the dining stations, but I don’t blame those sad and bored employees. It’s not the greatest job.

When I go through the line and grab my food, I realize that thanking the nineteen-year-old behind the counter probably isn’t going to do much to bring up their mood. But I can try, right? Sometimes I do get a smile and a “you’re welcome” in return. So it’s worth it.

And okay….not saying “please” and “thank you” every single time someone does something for you isn’t going to get you sent to hell; at least some people better hope not. I don’t consider it rude behavior per se, but come on — how hard is it? Just a couple of syllables! Anyone can do it without feeling like they’ve run a marathon or climbed Mount Everest.

No need to meditate on it. Most of our parents have been coaching us on how to be polite since we could understand language. Just remember that nagging voice from the birthday party.

Call me crazy, but kindness isn’t difficult to achieve. At all.

Try it! You’ll like it!

And so will everyone else.