Giving Up Your Seat

One of the things that I find so nice about Vienna, and at ICSV specifically, is how polite everyone is. The students greet their teachers with “Miss” or “Sir,” and even if I need to call someone into my office for a behavioral issue, they are always very polite to me.

One way that this manifests in public is when a young person will offer me their seat on the bus or U-Bahn. I usually refuse, unless my feet are killing me or I have a lot of luggage that I’m carrying. I think it is wonderful that this new generation is being taught to show respect this way.

Well, this morning, I was sitting on that little seat at the bus stop because I had just missed my bus, so I knew I had at least five minutes to wait. After a couple of minutes, an older man (probably not much older than I am) just looked at me and motioned for me to get up and give him my spot. This was rather odd, as the men have also shown respect and offered their seats to women. I did as he indicated and then stepped outside the bus enclosure to wait. I decided to take his action as a compliment. He must have thought that I was just a youngster who needed to show respect to him as a senior.  Instead of being insulted, I got on the bus with a smile on my face. “I must be having a really good hair day,” I thought.

We can’t control how people act toward us, but we can have something to do with how we react. 

Because of His Faithfulness,
Dr. Sharon Brobst, Director