Imagine you’re a waiter at a busy restaurant and an obnoxious guy walks in demanding he be served right away. The man barks orders at you; he scoffs when you reply that the kitchen is out of guacamole, and argues that you didn’t tell him certain toppings were extra. He is a total jerk.

As the person in a position of power, what would you do? Continue to serve him with a smile? Or delay his order and pass by his table when refilling water glasses?

So imagine that you are in the opposite position. A while ago I was planning a scavenger hunt where I had to ask multiple businesses to help by holding clues for me, and for nothing in return.

I started out this adventure with a negative attitude; I was told my idea would get shot down. While walking through the mall to my first destination, I was just hoping the person wouldn’t say “no.”

My doubts made me very pessimistic about my plan and when I asked the man, I almost commanded him to help me with what I needed. I thought that since he’d say “no,” I should be demanding.

Not at all to my surprise, he did say “no.”

Because I was aggressive and rude to the person, I didn’t end up getting what I wanted. I made the decision to act this way towards him because I was scared of getting rejected.

And in the end, I still received a “no.”

Asking someone you don’t know for something is a please-do-this-for-me-out-of-the-kindness-of-your-heart ask. And I put emphasis on please because after all, people do not have to help you. No one is required to be helpful.

I see people everywhere getting mad at others for no reason, thinking that the easiest way to get what they want is to yell and act mean to others.

When you venture on this route, not only are you stuck feeling angry and upset, but you also don’t have what you wanted in the first place.

I continued my trip that day asking store employees to keep my clues for my scavenger hunt. However, after my first experience, I asked politely.

My answers from then on were all ‘yes.’

When I asked nicely the people were willing to help me.

So when it comes down to it, I cannot tell you how much farther you will get in life if you are nice to people when asking for help.

The lesson I learned that day is if I’m polite when asking for help this world will be a friendlier, nicer place.

And as cheesy as that sounds, it holds so much truth. It is so easy to make the decision to be nice to people when asking for help.

The other day I was taking the purple line to downtown. I was dealing with a broken ticket machine when I started to get very frustrated. I was already late, my friend kept calling me, and I was wearing inappropriate clothing for the weather (don’t tell my mom, she told me to bring a coat.) On the verge of a Leah outburst, I remembered my ~*FaNcY*~ life hack. I asked the man working, who by the way seemed very angry, to please help me with my situation. What do ya know? He smiled and opened the gate for me to walk through to the train.

“Really?” I smiled, “Thank you SO much.”

“No problem. Have a good day,” he answered waving.