Kavya
passionné
résistant
idéaliste

Greatness.
I'm at Coffee Bean (officially my favourite coffee shop, both because of its impeccable chocolate flavor and because of the free trade agreement that it has with the farmers it procures its coffee from, so that they get paid their fair share UNLIKE starbucks etc that exploit the farmers all over the world so that most of them live below the poverty line), doing US History (well not really, since ive blogged twice in these two hours), and something someone just did inspired me to write.

Greatness, to me, is a personality trait, not a log of someone's achievements. It is the instinct to do what is right, to go out of one's way to make the lives of others a little bit easier, to hold the door open for someone with a ton of stuff in their hands, to help in whatever small way you can. This instinct is what leads people to true achievements, to climb the ladder of success to unprecedented heights. This is what leads people to live with a standard that elevates them from the norm, and this in turn boosts them to success.

What inspired me to write this? Knowing the dramatist i am, you should know that it wouldnt be some kind of grand gesture. A barista here has been watching (NOT creepily) three people (including me) slogging away at our computers (we're all students) for the past two to three hours. He's just my age, maybe a year or two away. He has watched customers come and go, while the three of us stay, with our eyes glued to the computers that seem to dictate our lives, the worry apparent on our faces, our fingers typing furiously. He watched as we sipped our cold drinks, a second's respite from the stress we seem to be under.

There are other baristas here, some much older than he is, all observing us during the occasional lulls in business. They watch, as he does, as we concentrate. They do what anyone would do - nothing.

The young barista, however, after a few minutes into one of the lulls in business, tapped me on my shoulder. I looked up, startled, wondering what he wanted, weather he wanted us to clear out because we had been hogging the seats for so very long. But instead, with a caring smile, he says "I made a few extra drinks by mistake. Would you like one?" He hands me a mocha latte, smiles as he is thanked, and moves on to give free drinks to the other two.

He made THREE mocha lattes (the most popular drink in coffee bean in case you didnt know) by "mistake", at the risk of being caught by his superiors, just so that he could make our day a little bit easier. No one else thought of it - there were at least four other baristas there with him. No one else went out of their way.

That gesture - those three minutes it took him to make those lattes - was what i call great. Very few people would do it. Very few people could find it in them to do something like that for a total stranger, even if it took just a minute.

Yet, i have been lucky. I have had the privilege of knowing so many great people in this short life of mine. So many who would go out of their way to help, who would try their best to make the lives of others easier in any way they can. So many who would give someone a ride to school if they had none, half their sandwich to someone who hasnt eaten, an hour of time to explain a concept to a friend.

Im just really grateful to have had so many truly great friends - in every sense of the word.