I’d forgotten what college tour season was like. But here we are meandering from school to school with student ambassadors walking us through their campuses enthusiastically pitching us as to why they feel their school is the ideal place to spend the next four years.
After these tours, the Standard Operating Procedure has been each school’s admission office sending out a generic “thanks for visiting our school” email and reminding us of key dates ahead in the application process. In our old fashioned US Postal Service mailbox, though, we received an unusual surprise.
A hand written personalized Thank You note from one of the student tour guides we had visited. It’s the only Thank You card we’ve received from any of them.
Certainly you don’t decide on a college based upon getting a card in the mail after a tour. But in receiving such a card, Devin the student tour guide differentiated himself from the other equally competent tour guides we’ve interacted with through this process.
Devin’s note stirred up an inner conversation about gratitude and connection. The digital world of emails, texts, and faceless AI interfaces is cold and vastly impersonal especially when compared to the warmth and authenticity found in receiving something hand created specifically for you. Digital expressions of gratitude are always easier but to me they often feel obligatory and insincere. I guess it’s better than nothing, but isn’t genuine gratitude worth the effort of putting pen to paper or calling instead of texting every once in a while?
It does feel as if there is some sort of Gratitude Void in the world these days. Efficiency has replaced authenticity at the expense of the quality of our human interactions, especially when it comes to the expression of gratitude.
Are we willing to settle for efficient relationships?
There is a universal need we humans all share. A need for connection. Meaningful human connection where we are authentically seen, accepted, acknowledged, and appreciated for who it is we are. That takes time and a willingness which is often at odds with the incessant demands of an ever unforgiving world.
Efficiency has its place in the world.
But not at the expense of our humanity.
Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash
Peter Mis LivingHalfFull.com 