A True Story

#empathymatters

Back in the days when I was young, overly aggressive, unnecessarily competitive, and unempathetic, I was driving on US 101 on the left most lane, where all my fellow competitive folks drive. I saw this car speeding towards me in the back. When it was too close to my car it jumped to the next lane, bit dangerously, and overtook my car and went ahead of me. As I always used to do, I took a peek at the driver’s face to adjust my bias (for ex: old lady, young man, etc). This time it happened to be a young man. I immediately concluded that this is some reckless 18 year old who is just showing off. So, I started chasing him in order to teach him a lesson. So, after bit of my own crazy driving I was about to overtake and go past his car on the right and was also ready to sound the horn to declare my victory. That is when I saw this even younger lady on his right, who looked pregnant and in severe labor pain by the look on her face. That very moment my ego, biases, and rudeness melted away into oblivion.

Please be considerate and empathetic to everyone. There can be several circumstances and problems that others might be going through which you cannot relate to or be aware of. Also, many times you might be competing with folks who are not in a competition.