Airport Sprints and Acts of Kindness
Today, I'm reflecting on tiny but impactful acts of kindness.
While flying back from an executive offsite with one of our wonderful clients last week, I discovered, upon touching down after the first of two flights, that we were landing later than our expected arrival time.
We then proceeded to linger on the runway, waiting for space to open up so that we could deplane at our gate.
I looked down at my app to realize that my next flight had already started boarding and practiced deep breathing while the minutes ticked by, closer and closer to the official take-off time. 10 minutes until take-off, with an estimated “time to gate” of 12 minutes. This wasn't looking good.
I mentioned to the woman in the aisle seat next to me that I was going to sneak out to grab my bag, which was stowed a few rows back, so that I could attempt to make the sprint from our arrival gate to my next departure gate, which was clear across the airport.
Acts of Kindness
When I got back to my seat with my roller bag, my seat mate had set my black laptop bag on the outside edge of the seat with my phone sitting neatly beside it, and she had taken my window seat, giving me the aisle and therefore the quickest path toward the plane's exit.
Meanwhile, another woman across the aisle checked in with everyone around her to see who had a connection, in order to allow us all off of the plane first.
After the fastest airport sprint of my life (in my mind, it rivaled my high school 400-meter pace), I did indeed make the connection, after the gate agent (once again, kindly) agreed to open the door back up after boarding had technically been completed.
These tiny acts —my seat mate swapping seats with me and setting me up for my sprint, the care and consideration from the woman across the aisle, and the kindness of the gate agent —had a massive impact on the trajectory of my evening, and ultimately on the trajectory of the rest of my week.
Questions to Ponder
Reflecting on these small but meaningful acts of kindness, the questions that arise today are:
Where might we have the opportunity to do a tiny act of kindness that might also shape the trajectory of someone's day, week, or perhaps even their month?
What is one tiny, but meaningful, act of kindness I could do today? This week?
What is one small thing that wouldn't cost me a lot of time, energy, or money, but that might have a massive impact on the trajectory of someone else's day or week?
