Editor, The Record:
I think residents of Mission could benefit from reading my two cents, even though it doesn’t apply to all. Unfortunately, it applies to too many.
Mission: You’re rude!
I grew up in Mission, so it took going away to another province and coming back after nine years to see it.
Many of Mission’s residents are cold and unwelcoming to strangers.
I have never thought of myself as Little Miss Suzy Sunshine. As far as that rhyme about girls goes: “Little girls are full of spice and everything nice,” I have always thought of myself as spicy rather than nice.
So this discovery that I’m more smiley than the average Mission resident is quite shocking. I smile at customers walking by my place of work and more often than not, they don’t smile back.
I smile at people who are crossing my path because I’ve made eye contact with them (instead of doing what I see a lot of people doing: avoiding eye contact so as to not be forced to interact with another human being) and they look at me with a blank stare.
Let’s just get this straight, Mission: A smile is a smile. It’s a courteous acknowledgment of your presence. It’s not flirting and it’s not a marriage proposal!
A customer came to my place of work and I greeted her with a smile and she gave me two coupons for free video rentals.
She told me she said to herself she was going to give these two coupons to the first person who would smile at her that day. She said I was the first person who smiled at her that day. It was 5:45 p.m.
I figure I have got just as much a reason to not be smiling as the next person whose life is not what they would like it to be. The bad economy is affecting us all. Yes, we are getting a lot of rain, but we should be used to that by now, shouldn’t we? We’re on the wet west coast!
Smiles are free and are contagious; or at least they’re supposed to be. For those of you who do smile at strangers and get a blank stare in return, keep on doing it. Smile on, because we all need those smiles.
Sioban Ethier
Mission