This weekend I flew home to visit my family and, upon landing in Chicago for a connection flight, I witnessed a scene that caused me personal embarrassment. Living up to the title of “Windy City”, Chicago was experiencing some winds deemed unsuitable for travel by air traffic control and my flight was delayed an hour. When we finally arrived, the elevator that brings up checked carry-on luggage was broken, leaving me and the other passengers to wait for another few minutes. Having experienced this scenario myself I can understand why it somebody would get frustrated, but there is still no reason to act inappropriately.

Amongst the grumbles and complaints there was one man in particular that openly expressed his feelings toward the situation. While we were waiting he informed us that he had a flight to catch, that the situation was ridiculous and, of course, how he would never fly with this airline again. When it was announced that our bags were waiting on the other end of the jet bridge he proceeded to push his way through the crowd and nearly tackle a flight attendant in the process before turning back around and yelling for everybody to get out of the way as he sprinted away from the awe-struck crowd. Of course there is nothing more nerve wracking than the prospect of missing a flight, especially if you are already at the departing airport. However, I’m sure if that man were to watch a film of his behavior during this time he would be embarrassed for himself too. Mostly because, if he were to have swallowed his emotions and allowed himself to think reasonably, he would have realized all he needed to do to was step outside of the jet bridge and inform the desk worker about the delay and see if the plane would wait for a few minutes.

It was not this man’s fault that he was about to miss his flight, nor was it the fault of the airline or the nearly trampled flight attendant. It was also no one’s fault that the luggage elevator happened to break on a flight that had already arrived an hour late. Each incidence was one of chance beyond the control of every human being affected by his poor attitude. How often do we witness scenarios like this on a daily basis? People getting moody because the line for coffee is too long or complaining when something does not go just right, we see it all the time and everybody is guilty of such behavior, including myself. Do we ever stop to this how this looks to the people around us?

This scenario encouraged me to not only consider how I look to outsiders but to remind myself that I am not the only person on the planet. We share the Earth with around seven billion other people, all of whom have their own agendas apart from our own. It is in these situation that we should take a moment to implement the golden rule (which I have tweaked a bit to fit the context): act as you want others to act. Nobody wants to be around people that are constantly complaining or throwing themselves a pity party; they want to be around people that handle stressful situations with class.

Next time something frustrating occurs in your everyday life, step back and think about whether or not you are responding appropriately. Are you throwing a fit or keeping it classy? If your answer is not the latter figure out how to adjust your behavior to save both yourself and the people around you from an awkward situation… others will be appreciative.