By Emi Gruender
“Thank you.”
That’s all it takes. It’s truly a one-size-fits-all phrase, effective in both situations of life-threatening peril (“You saved my life! …Thank you.”) and the day-to-day mundane (“Thanks for holding open the door for me.”) Perhaps it’s the overly-judgemental mindset I developed as a kid towards anyone that doesn’t overuse those words of gratitude, as a result of how my parents raised me, but even today I harbour quite a bit of judgement towards anyone without this habitual courtesy.
Perhaps it’s an issue with this generation specifically, and the so-called “lack of respect” that youngins pay their elders. Perhaps it’s an issue with their parents, who thought it unnecessary to drill a constant sense of gratitude into their children. And perhaps it’s just teenagers in general.
But very few truly appreciate how far a simple “thank you” can go. Perhaps you say it as you’re leaving a friend’s parent’s car, or finishing up a plate of dinner a host made for you. Perhaps you don’t say those “magic words” at all, and rather demonstrate your gratitude by cleaning up after yourself. At the end of the day, a simple “thanks” goes a long way. Likewise, a lack of thanks will go a long way, too—just in the opposite direction.