I have lived in New York City since the day I was born. I have also traveled extensively in my life. In both my daily travels here and my vacations away from home, I have come to notice one thing – courtesy in this city is a thing of the past.

Here in New York City, people are either too busy to be courteous – or just don’t want to be. At least once a day, I see an example of rudeness, crassness, and selfish behavior. Take yesterday for example. I was driving my friend Lisa’s car and approached an intersection where the driver to my right had a Stop sign. Instead of stopping as he was supposed to – he breezed right through the Stop sign as if it wasn’t even there – and then gave me a dirty look because I had the audacity to honk at him. A few hours later, a woman driving in the opposite direction of me wanted to pass a double-parked car and decided to come into my lane to make the pass – coming at me head on at a very high rate of speed. If I had not stopped to allow her to make her move – I would have definitely been in a head on collision.

Driving is not the only time that I witness a lack of courtesy in this fine city. There are times I go shopping or go to a restaurant and get treated as if I am an annoyance instead of a customer. There was a time I was in Boston Market to order lunch. When it was my turn to order, the woman behind the counter was laughing with another co-worker. When she turned around to serve me – she actually rolled her eyes at me, sighed, and said, in a very annoyed tone, “Can I help you?”

When I travel, people are so much friendlier than they are here. I don’t think it is on purpose, I just think that there is a tremendous amount of pressure for those who live here in New York City. Everything, such as rent, gas, and cigarettes are more expensive, you need to work at least sixty to seventy hours a week just to make ends meet – and in this city – nice guys definitely finish last. In a way, it’s a shame that people are the way they are here. This is a great city, but it would be so much better if people were nicer. After September 11th, eight million New Yorkers turned into one, big, happy family. But as we get farther away from the atrocity – we get farther away from the camaraderie we once shared.

I am, by nature, a very upbeat person. I always try to be happy and exude a positive attitude no matter what is going on in my life. So when I encounter a negative person or someone who is just plain nasty – it really gets to me because I could never be that way no matter how upset I may be. Throughout my life, I have always been someone who loves to be around people. In fact, since I started here at Secrets, many of our regulars have already complimented me to Grace, telling her that I am a very personable guy and someone they enjoy talking to. That is why I cannot understand why people find the need to be nasty and disrespectful to others, even if they are having a bad day.

Can’t we all just get along?