What is a compliment? I see a compliment as someone who comes up to you and tells you something courteous. I grew up and we would often tell each other thank you or we would Complement each other on our clothing. As I have grown older, I have started to hear them more. I never thought much of compliments until a few years ago when I started hearing them often and in around my college life. You hear the occasional compliment “good job”, “good choices”, and “you’re a great person”. However, there was a period of my life when I had a good friend of mine (I would even say best friend) was going through a recent break up and he was down on himself. We go out and we have our life talks every now and then but at this time we were having even more talks because he just needed someone to talk to. I remember one time in particular we were texting back and forth and there was one phrase in particular that still sticks with me “you’re the most legit human being ever”. I think what may have happened was that he was thinking at that time of moving out to Chicago because he was looking for a change of scenery. He gave himself enough time and he was able to see where home was and I for one would not be where I am had he stayed over in Chicago. At first, I thought nothing of the comment but as the years have gone on I can be honest in saying that comment meant a lot to me. Yes, people can say that it sounds cheesy and unnecessary but I have my personality quirks that probably drive people crazy but coming from that one friend meant a lot to me. For one, there are billions of people on this earth and from day one we had this connection which couldn’t be denied. As I have detailed before, it’s been about 8 years since I started this blog and he was the one who helped me start this blog.
The personal struggles we took to get where we were at that point definitely made it more special. I would ask myself sometimes, “am I ever going to get out of this funk I’m in”. He would help me get out of this funk “you’re going to be stuck at a certain place in your life forever”. At that point, I was one semester away from graduating from San Jose State University and I thought I probably would not be here if it was not for him. Yes, I accomplished those tasks on my own but I had his help along the way. He would encourage me, vouch for me at certain points, and he would give me pointers on how to better achieve success. The thing about compliments is that we as people can say them but for this one phrase to be said, it got me even more motivated to reach higher for the stars. The best compliment of “you’re the most legit human being ever” also meant a lot because I got the feeling that through our years of friendship we got to see the best and worst of each other. I remember we went a few months without talking to each other. This all spans back to when he made a comment about a financial situation of mine and I turned a cold shoulder towards him.
Little did I know, this was one those friends that would not give up on me. We saw each other not too long after that and it felt like old times. He even helped me on a few homework assignments during my time at Community College. The one class I struggled at was Statistics in the Fall of 2012 and we had an occasion where he helped me out with an assignment and that was another occasion where I was grateful for him. All those times where we were there for each other led to that moment when he gave me that compliment. One I hadn’t even thought about what was next but he gave me the motivation to keep on moving and to keep reaching even higher. Even it’s just small progress, it’s still progress no matter how far it goes. Humans have these qualities which can be grown and driven to be better and from that moment on, I have not taken much for granted. I can count compliments as some of the most wonderful things in the world.
To add onto this, I have always been told that I have a positive attitude even going back to my retail days at Target. One of my managers would occasionally tell me how much they appreciated the hustle and the effort and also the positive attitude. Even now at my current position, I get told that on a constant basis and it’s something else I don’t take for granted because of how much I do it from day to day. Another time I got one of the best compliments was when I was still working in retail and one of my managers had nominated me for one of her top performers and she made the comment that “thank you for giving your top effort and for putting one hundred percent”. The other managers had written something along the lines of “good job” “keep it going” but I felt that comment stood out from the rest. In a sense, these compliments made it possible for me to see that good people still exist in this world. I agree that not everybody may enjoy the spotlight but when you get those compliments it feels a helluva lot better than not getting them. I urge everyone that no matter how you may feel on a certain day giving a compliment can make someone’s day and you may not even know it. That is the one thing I enjoy about compliments is that yes they are just words but putting some meaning behind it is even better. You can just feel it when you say such words and having that other person hear them from you matter more. Compliments in general, are there to lift the human spirit.
Just Another Day... 