ELEVATOR PREP RALLY
As the ominous metal doors close, the awkwardness steadily rises as the elevator descends, delivering you and all your co-riders into the fires of Monday morning. Half asleep and dreading the morning’s inevitable anxieties, you lack the concern to press the “door open” button for those who are hurrying to share in the downward trip to the ground level.
Though only lasting up to a minute or so, the awkward silence that can fill the air of the metal box can feel like an eternity. The awkwardness is so palpable you could slice through it with a butter knife.
To be honest, I admit that these can turn out to be my favorite elevator moments. Monday morning, week after week, month after month, seeing so many glum people lumber into the elevator inspired me to do something radical. Being an individual who does not have much use for self-consciousness, I decided to embrace the awkwardness.
Thus, I became a one-woman pep rally.
We are all participating in the not so favorable activity of Monday mornings, why not use it as a rallying point to attempt to reverse the gloom. Now, as doors close and the elevator starts to glide down the shafts, I wholeheartedly slice the painful awkwardness in half with my cheer of, “Yes! It’s Monday, y’all! We’ve got this! We can do it! We’re in this together!”.
I expected to receive cynical remarks and dismissive looks from the Debbie Downers. Instead, the reactions to such seemingly misplaced, random enthusiasm have pleasantly surprised me.
Some of my fellow riders absorbed in the blaring music of their earbuds pay me no mind. However, a fair amount of my other Monday morning metal box riders have a noticeably positive shift in demeanor.
There are others who remain silent but their brow starts to unfurrow and the corners of their mouth lift slightly to reveal a subtle smile. I have been able to elicit a delightful chuckle from others because of my display of such absurdity. A few of my elevator pals have expressed their graciousness for the Monday morning encouragement.
Another opportunity to inject some joy into those awkward elevator rides is to hold the door for people I hear from a distance rushing to catch it before the doors close. I make sure to exuberantly hold the doors open by standing between the doors (so they do not shut). As soon they cross the metal threshold, I make sure to cheerfully acknowledge my out of breath fellow passenger with a “Yes! You made it!. We make eye contact and I see that they are thankfully relieved that something went right in their morning.
Interestingly enough my elevator pep rallies have been met with negativity only a handful of times. I am always prepared to receive scornful looks or nasty responses. You will always have naysayers and haters who thrive on dolling out discontent. However, I have learned that those who choose to be cruel or cynical to a positive person are beings who are actually experiencing great suffering deep down within themselves. Thus, it is all the more reason to extend our compassion to them, for they are the ones who are in the most need of it. This is why I am not bothered one bit when I have had a negative encounter.
Once we start to realize that we are all experiencing different versions of the same predicament, in this case, the displeasure of Monday mornings, perhaps we can be more supportive of each other. If those close-quarter elevator rides are not so acutely awkward, maybe the Monday morning descent won’t burn so bad.
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