When someone compliments you...

As a grown up, I realize that through the course of life I have learned many valuable lessons. Some of them were taught to me by my mom and dad. Some of them I learned in school and though expereience. many of them were taught to me by my aunts. Now, I am an aunt and my oldest niece recently started kindergarten. I know that they say everything you need to know you learn in kindergarten. I disagree. I believe that there are some things that one cannot learn in a classroom. These are lessons that can only be learned by living. So, here it it. A year's worth of advice for all the nieces and nephews out there, or really for anyone who will listen. They may not work for everybody and you may not agree with all of them, but each one is a rule that I either try to live by or wish I did.

# 19 When someone compliments you say "thank you."

In our lives, if we're lucky, we grow up hearing things such as "say please and thank you." We practice these everyday in front of our parents and our teachers, and maybe even our friends. Then we move out of our parents' house and we are no longer in school. It is easy to slip out of doing all of the things that our parents reminded us to do everyday.
I live in New York City, possibly one of the rudest places in the country, if not the world. People bump into you, taxi's honk at you, people yell for no reason. I am also in the service industry, so people love to take their problems out on me. I have this friend at work who is a firm believer in proper etiquitte, even though he can be quite rude when necessary. His number one pet peeve is this: "If someone compliments you, say thank you."
How many times does someone ask us if we have lost weight and we say "oh no, I've actually gained a couple of pounds," or someone tells us they love our new haircut and we say "oh I hate it, she cut way too much off," or someone tells us they love our glasses and we say, "Ugh, I hate wearing glasses, but my new contacts haven't come in yet."
Ok, so maybe those are just things that I say, but we're all guilty of it. Just change my words around and add your own and there you go, a compliment fallen to the wayside. If someone is kind enough to notice those things, and even still, to compliment you on them, for crying out loud, say "thank you." Please. Besides if they are taking the time out of their own hustle and bustle to be kind, then perhaps we can too.