Trying to be nice...

About 2-3 yrs ago - I decided I should be nice/polite to everyone around me. Not that I am rude but sometimes I can be plain blunt.

You see, it started this way. One of our close friends called us, I pick up the phone and b/c I hate talking on phones (long story) I immediately pass it J. I do not remember being blunt or anything - just passing the phone to J so i didn't have to talk on the phone.

K, our friend made a lighthearted comment about how I never talk to him on the phone....he was joking, I was giving my exams, was stressed and took this to mean - I will fail all my classes if I am not nice to everyone. Note: You do not tempt karma when giving your exams!

So I decided that I should do what every polite Canadian does - smile at people as they pass you the street, talk about the weather with strangers and say hello to anyone you know.

Now, not every Canadian does this and not necessarily in this order. So as a new immigrant and a highly stressed-out student, I started giving smiles to anyone and everyone on the street. I would say hello to anyone who looked familiar and talked about the weather all the time to perfect strangers.

Now that I think of that phase, and yes it was a phase, I think people around me must have thought I was high - which being in Vancouver would not be that uncommon!

Anyways.

Turns out me being nice to everyone was not a good thing - atleast for me.

First of all, my attempts at being nice to everyone were thwarted by random people not smiling back or simply ignoring me. This would usually not be a bid deal but for someone who was really trying - it was disheartening.

This guy that I absolutely hated to begin with (he was too smart for his own good. Talked all the time in the class) made a fool of me when I said an over enthusiastic hello to him in the middle of the student union building (its like a cafeteria/food court) at UBC. TWICE! Damn him!

Then my talks about the weather started started making me look like a fool. True, I was saying what a lovely day it was when it was absolutely pouring...but hey, I was trying to be nice - not negative!

Anyways, so about 2 or 3 months into me being overly nice I took the bus ride. Now let me say, at this point, that by this time I was already questioning the whole nice-ness thing. I mean being nice doesn't really suit me. I am a sarcastic person. If I were nice then I wouldn't be sarcastic - you know? So I was already telling to myself that it was okay if no one liked me - as long as I liked myself. blah. blah. blah...

Moving forward.

I get on to the bus and its sort of packed except a bunch of seats around this homeless guy. Since I was being nice and wanted to sit - I sat next to the homeless guy. I thought, what-the-hell, even homeless guy is a human being, he must feel like crap how everyone treats him. So I happily took a seat next to him much to the amazement of everyone on the bus including the homeless guy.
Sure he reeked of something stale! Sure, he was sneezing the entire bus ride! And sure, it seemed that he was covered in, what I now know to be chicken pox rash....Sure. But I was being nice and, besides, I had not seen any grown ups with chicken pox. No, not even in India! So throughout the bus ride - under the constant gaze of strangers, I sat next to someone who had chicken pox and didn't budge, all because I was being nice.

Lo and behold, two weeks later, BAM! I start getting fever, and rash. Two days after that my doctor confirms that I do indeed have Chicken Pox.

Yes, I got chicken pox in my twenties because I thought I was being nice. Thus, from that day on - I don't do nice. Nice doesn't suit me.

And I have learned some valuable lessons.
a) do not be nice to people, it will come back to bite you!
b) guy sneezing + covered in rash = probably a case of chicken pox, therefore, RUN!