Everyone Was Beaming, Everyone, Everywhere

Even though it's my third year here at Drury, it still surprises me how friendly people are walking around campus. 

I went to a large highschool. My graduating class alone had about 600 people in it. I didn't know a lot of people, and only had a handful of close friends, but I can't name anyone who really had a problem with me. Yet, I'm hard-pressed to think of a time when someone I didn't know would even smile in passing. 

I don't think I've become any more approachable. I'm no more outgoing. I don't really know very many people around campus. Just walking across campus, though, people I've never spoken to will give a friendly smile. Sometimes we even exchange a passing "hello." 

It's not the kind of interaction one really thinks about, I don't think. Does anybody wake up and think, "Today, I'm going to smile at everyone. I'm going to say 'hi' to someone I don't know." It's a small effortless action, too. It adds a lot to the atmosphere on campus though. Even with all the "drama" Drury still has an over-all open and friendly air to it. 

I have to remember this for the coffee shop/venue (from here on out, I'm just going to call it "the coffee shop;" it's shorter and easier). "Service with a smile" is not a new idea, by any means, but I think it's easy to forget how much genuine friendliness can improve the mood and feel of a place. 

Are You Open to Suggestion?

This is my first real post on this blog, so I guess I'll make it kind of introductory. It is, as I said in the little "pre-post," an assignment, but I think I'd like to try and keep it up after the assignment is finished. I'll admit that I used to have (okay, okay, I still do have, I just don't use... often) a Xanga, and I've been looking for a place to write with a different style. So, here I'm planning on writing about... something. Hopefully it's something worthwhile.

I've recently realized what I want to do with my life, and that is to take part in running a coffee shop/concert venue/safe hangout for teens and young adults. It's sort of complicated, I suppose, I know it's what I'm supposed to do. I came to this realization when I was walking around a park with my best friend. We were talking about random nonsense, like we always do, when all the nonsense fell together into this idea. 

And that sets the background for what I'm going to be writing about in this blog. Partly (because I think it fits the expectations for the assignment better), I want to talk about ideas for and experiences I have with other establishments (and people) that inspire me. I also want to talk about other sources of Inspiration, though, and this is where I'm getting the title for this blog. There are so many things that happen all the time, everyday little things, that become transparent. We see right through them. I hope to write about these things that can have a lot more meaning when we learn to see them, rather than simply through them. 

Here we go...