I had a great weekend and, well, had a little inspiration to write. I was driving in my car this morning and a memory popped into my mind.

♫It was 20 years ago today…♫♫♫ (Beatles -Sgt Pepper moment) I had a job interview in New York City, I don’t recall much about the interview but I remember visiting the corner deli in Floral Park for a dark and flavorful Hazelnut coffee and perhaps an egg sandwich before boarding the train for a 40 minute ride into New York’s Penn station.

Again, I don’t remember much about the interview, it could have been my interview with the NFL. I spent half my day meeting people of several different departments and IT staff. They took me through a battery of interviews and skill assessments. During the interview process, they gave me a lunch break. I went to lunch with one of my friends who worked for them and after lunch, it was back to interviews. My last interview was with the IT Trainer. They took me into a training room and had me open up various Microsoft Office applications and wanted to see if I had a good understanding of each product. At the time I only had an elementary knowledge of Microsoft office but everything they asked me to do was a breeze!

After a long day of interviews, I looked forward to getting out of my monkey suit. With the travel and length of the interview, I was exhausted towards the end of the day. I was pleasantly surprised to get a seat on the train, it was an aisle seat towards the middle of the train. I was a bit tired and probably staring off into space. I looked up at some point down the aisle of the train and someone was smiling in my direction. “Why is this person looking at me and smiling?” I wondered to myself as my eyes shifted nervously back to my newspaper. I looked up again, “Ack! She is still smiling and looking my way, maybe I will look over my shoulder, maybe she is looking at an advertisement that are located behind me by the train doors? Maybe she is smiling at someone else?” but when I realized there was nothing much going on behind me, I retreated to looking down at my newspaper again! But human nature being as it was, I looked up again… a smile appeared on her face…

I’m not sure how long this went on during this trip but at some point I lifted my head up, she smiled and that would be the last smile she offered. I think when I started looking back down again (but kept my eye on her) a frown appeared on her face. I never smiled back!

I thought of this moment this morning. It is not uncommon for me, when I am in my “zen”, to smile at people when I am out in public. I can walk through the supermarket, give someone an unconditional smile and sometimes I get a smile in return. It’s a pretty good feeling!

So, to that girl who smiled at me 15-20 years ago on the train from NYC to Long Island, I’m sorry I did not acknowledge your smile! I apologize for not returning the favor. It was an introduction that I was too shy to acknowledge.  What seemed so unusual at that time, seems like pure genius today. Thank you!

For the rest of you. smile or be conscious of smiling back 🙂