My morning was so spectacularly terrible, I considered becoming a hermit and communicating only via angry emojis.
I’m talking spilled coffee down my white shirt before 7 AM. I’m talking my cat deciding my laptop keyboard was the perfect place to cough up a hairball. I’m talking realizing I’d worn two subtly different black shoes only after arriving at the crowded subway platform. My aura? Think “sentient pile of wet laundry.” My mood? A deflated whoopee cushion.
You know those days. Where every minor inconvenience feels like the universe personally flicking you in the forehead? Where your inner monologue is just a grumpy badger muttering, “Really? Again?” Yeah. That was me. I was practically radiating “DO NOT PERCEIVE ME” vibes, headphones clamped on like industrial-grade ear armor, scowling at my mismatched feet. I was one dropped phone away from dissolving into a puddle of pure, unadulterated ugh.
Then, somewhere between the screech of brakes and the stale subway air, it happened.
I looked up. Across the packed car, crammed next to a guy holding a suspiciously large potted plant, was an older woman. She caught my eye. And she smiled. Not a polite, tight-lipped thing. Not a distracted half-smile. A full-on, crinkly-eyed, warm-as-fresh-baked-bread, genuine smile. It was like a tiny sunbeam cutting through smog.
For a split second, I froze. My grumpy badger brain short-circuited. Why is she smiling at me? Does she not see the coffee stain? The shoes? The general aura of despair I’m cultivating?
But here’s the twist: It wasn’t about me.
That smile wasn’t a demand, an expectation, or even really for me in the way I initially thought. It was just… there. A spontaneous burst of human warmth offered freely into the void. And in that instant, something shifted.
“It felt like a tiny conspiracy of kindness I hadn’t signed up for, but desperately needed.”
That simple, unexpected connection – completely unearned and utterly uncomplicated – punctured my self-important bubble of misery. My ridiculous shoes? Suddenly hilarious. The coffee stain? A battle scar proving I survived the morning commute. The hairball keyboard? Okay, still gross, but manageable.
It wasn’t magic. It didn’t fix my deadlines or clean my shirt. But it did remind me that I wasn’t alone in this chaotic, messy human experience. We’re all out here navigating spilled coffee and rogue hairballs and existential dread on public transport. We build these little fortresses of headphones and frowns, convinced the world is out to get us. Sometimes, all it takes is one person lowering their drawbridge for a second to let a little light in.
Think about the world right now. We’re drowning in curated feeds of impossible perfection, breaking news designed to terrify, and algorithms feeding our worst impulses. Genuine, unfiltered, kind human interaction feels radical. Revolutionary, even. That woman wasn’t trying to go viral; she wasn’t filming a “Kindness Challenge” TikTok. She was just… being human. Offering a moment of warmth because she felt like it. And in doing so, she became my unexpected, unwitting joy thief.
It flipped the script. Instead of seeing the world as antagonistic, I saw it as full of potential allies. That guy with the plant? Probably has an interesting story. The barista who handed me a replacement coffee with a sympathetic grimace? A silent comrade in the war against mornings. My stupid mismatched shoes? A conversation starter waiting to happen (and they were, later, much to my embarrassment and everyone else’s amusement).
So, what’s the big takeaway hidden in this tiny subway moment?
It’s not that smiling fixes everything. It’s that connection – even fleeting, anonymous connection – reminds us we’re not isolated islands of angst. We’re part of a gloriously messy, often frustrating, but fundamentally shared experience. Sometimes, the most profound rebellion against the daily grind isn’t a grand gesture, but the courage to offer a spark of warmth to a stranger drowning in their own bad day. You never know whose fortress walls you might breach.
Next time you’re having a sentient wet laundry kind of day, look up. You might just catch someone’s eye. And if you’re feeling brave? Maybe be the person who offers the unexpected smile. Forget the curated perfection and the performative kindness. Just be genuinely, warmly human for a second. It costs nothing. And honestly? It might just be the secret weapon we’ve all been overlooking.
Your turn! Hit me in the comments – tell me about an unexpected moment of kindness (given OR received) that totally flipped your script. Bonus points if it involved public transport mishaps or questionable footwear!
The girl who still can’t match her shoes (but is trying to match the kindness), signing off. ✨