I Appreciate You

I started a new job, one where I interact with a never ending line of customers for eight hours a day. To some people, that might sound like their own personal version of hell, and in being honest, some days it feels like mine as well. However, for the most part, I’m loving it, I have such an amazing time with the people I work with and a majority of our customers are excited over what we have to offer each day. There are some customers that run in and out in under five minutes knowing exactly what they came for, but my favorite are the ones that enjoy our interaction as much as I do. They’re kind, and polite, and ask how my day is which always makes me pause and remember, they don’t need to ask me that, making the fact that they did even more special. Lately I’ve been noticing a trend with some of our customers, as they’re leaving, instead of saying the traditional “Thank you,” they say “I appreciate you.” The first time it happened was when I was helping a nanny who was trying to wrangle three small children by herself. I knew she was a tad overwhelmed and I took as much time as possible to help her get settled and make sure she and the children she was with got everything they came for. The entire interaction took longer than most customers, so when she turned to me at the end and said so genuinely, “I appreciate you” I felt touched and believed it was because I had taken the time to help her. Flash forward to another customer, one I had been having a pleasant interaction with, saying “I appreciate you” when I would have normally expected them to say “Thank you.” This has now happened quite a few times with all different customers and every time it happens it stops me in my tracks. We say so many things out of habit, someone sneezes, and instantly we say “Bless you!” You’re asking for something and you know to say “Please,” that person gives it to you and without hesitating you say “Thank you.” Now imagine replacing those two words with “I appreciate you,” and think about what that says to the person, for me it says I am grateful for what you have done for me at this moment and I am thankful that you were here to help me.

Is that reading too much into it? Maybe, but it’s how I truly feel whenever I have someone say it to me, knowing they consciously made the choice to say those words instead of our ingrained quick reaction of “Thank you.” I’m going to try and start working this new saying of gratitude more into my daily life, taking the extra moment to let that person know how grateful I am for them no matter how big or small the task is. So here I am Instagram and I’d like to say, I appreciate all of you so very much. I have thoughts that I love to share with you all, and time and time again you always surprise me with your love and support and I appreciate it all so very much. I hope you will start looking at the times when you feel gratitude and take a second to think about the words you might use in that moment, what you say and how you say it could make someone’s day a little brighter.