Remember to say Thanks

Well I am in Orlando now until Wednesday. I am here for a work event and wanted to share a thought from flying here from Minneapolis through Atlanta.

The flights were relatively uneventful. The planes weren’t real full to Atlanta or Orlando and the flights seemed to be very quick. Landing in Atlanta it was raining out and very cloudy. All in all it was boring and I caught myself thinking about the blog and what I was going to write today.

As I was walking through the Atlanta Airport, one of the worlds busiest airports, I begin to notice a large number of service men and women. All of a sudden everywhere I looked there were military personnel waiting for flights. I started to wonder if they were coming or going.

As I sat and waited for my flight from Atlanta to Orlando I watched the reaction of people as they came across one of these fine men and women. Some just stared and others seem to just pass by without even noticing them.

My flight was called and I got up to stand in line to board the plane. There were 5 or 6 service men standing against the wall and I heard one of them say “I head over on June 13th”. The others seem to understand exactly what that meant and as the line slowly moved the young man, maybe 20, in line ahead of me went up to the military guys, tapped him on the arm and said “Thanks”. The military guy looked at him and said “thanks, we appreciate that”. No other words were exchanged, just a simple “thanks”.

The flight from Atlanta to Orlando was even less full and after an hour the plane was already on the tarmac. As we approached the gate one of the flight attendant’s came on to tell everyone to wait until we get to the gate until you get up and all the other general announcements and at the end she said “you all may have noticed our service men and women on this flight, we just want to say thanks”. A round of applause came next.

I have a friend at work that when she sees me she says “Thanks for coming to work today”. We laugh a bit about it, but it now brings on new meaning as all of us go to work and do something for someone else. We are service people. Now granted most of us do not serve knowing our lives are in jeopardy of losing our life, but I think the message is still the same. Stand up and applaud and say thanks for people coming to work. If you go to the bank, the store, the park, or your gym, remember to say “thanks for coming to work today”. My learning: show your appreciation every day not just on a flight to Orlando.

One simple word “thanks” means so much. So as you go about your day today, please remember to say thanks to those that live their lives in services to us and others.