A train journey home from Glasgow was so inspiring

I’m not really a morning person, so the idea of standing in a crammed carriage morning and night surrounded by business men and women wasn’t particularly appealing to me. Although my experiences travelling to and from Glasgow most mornings usually don’t evoke must interest from me, but a particular journey home last week caused me to take a step back and look at the way I treat others.

It was a busy Friday evening commute and I was sat at a table of four, next to two women. They seemed polite at first, they even offered me a glass of red wine (which I kindly refused). However, the remainder of the journey left me appalled, as the two did nothing but sit and gossip about one of their colleagues who, gathering from their rude remarks, was clearly struggling at her job. They were laughing at her efforts in the office, pretty much saying she was useless, and I couldn’t help finding myself getting really, really angry.

I get it, humans don’t have the ability to get on with everyone we meet. However, I believe there is a fine line between voicing an opinion and being downright nasty. As I sat next to these two horrible people on that train journey home, I desperately wanted to say something about their vile behaviour.

But then I realised, we’re all guilty of it. Everybody at some point in their lives has had a nasty word to say about someone else and it wasn’t until last week that I realised that’s not fair. It forced me to step into another person’s shoes and question how I’d feel if someone was being rude about me behind my back. It’s brought a whole new meaning to the phrase “do unto others as they would do to you” and I hope people start to realise that kindness costs nothing.

Who would have thought train journeys could be so inspiring?