One day down and many more to go

I think the day of compassion went really well. I think overall I am a very courteous person but not always very compassionate. So I looked at the definitions of both words at Oxford Dictionaries Online:

Courteous-polite, respectful, or considerate in manner

Compassion-sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others

I think it is easier to be courteous than to compassionate. How often have you heard about something bad happening and just thought “I am glad that’s not me”. I know I do this all the time. Fortunately I didn’t see any people suffering today during my time out and about. The biggest thing I found myself doing was trying to keep any negative thoughts out of my head and not judging people as I often do in my head. I do generally give people a label based on my first impression, often without realizing it, which almost always is wrong but for some reason I still find myself doing it. I try really hard not to do this in the classroom and as I meet new students throughout the year. I really try to wait and get to know people before making any kind of judgments and even those often turn out to very wrong.

So for today I really made an effort to be very polite to anyone I was around. I meet with my major professor this morning and someone came up and started asking him a question, I was very patient while the two of them talked trying not to look annoyed or rushed. The person looked at me at me and I gave them a big smile as if to say, “no worries get your questions answered”.

I made an effort to see if Tonya wanted help formatting her philosophy charter. I tried to be patient and show her a few things and hopefully she didn’t get frustrated with the program (or my help). I believe we were very successful in finishing her project.

Overall today was kind of trying and it did take work to be compassionate all day but I think I did learn from this experience.