For some reason, today of all days you didn’t hear your alarm go off. Luckily, you woke up at  7:00 and managed to get out of the house by 7:15.  

After belting out multiple songs from your playlist and making numerous lane changes to try and avoid traffic, it’s 7:55. You already know that finding parking in the lot is going to take you more than 5 minutes, and of course you have that super important class first period. Yet at this moment you are focusing on one thing: trying to make that awkward lane change to get off at exit 27C – Shoup. You hope some car lets you pass and understands that you are in quite the hurry.

While we always expect others to let us get ahead, whether that be on the freeway or in life, we rarely stop and let others pass us by.

As we drive on the freeway, we have all at least once had that moment when we’ve been frustrated at a car changing lanes right in front of us. “How do they not understand that we are in a rush?” we ask ourselves. However, what we should really be asking ourselves is “Why is that person in such a rush too?”

“Whatever you do, think about what other people need to.” That’s a song from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Since we were in preschool we learned the “Golden Rule” to “treat others the way you want to be treated.” But how often do we really listen to it?

While yes, it is important that we prioritize ourselves, we must also learn that there are times when we must let others go ahead, and even give them a boost to do so.

As David Foster Wallace states in his essay, “This is Water,” “There is no experience you’ve had that you were not at the absolute center of. The world as you experience it is right there in front of you, or behind you, to the left or right of you, on your TV, or your monitor, or whatever. Other people’s thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real — you get the idea.”

David Foster Wallace describes this idea of  “self-centeredness” to be our “default setting.”

However, while it is our default setting, I believe that it should not be our only setting.

As I sit at my desk worrying about writing my college applications, I can’t help but overhear the TV in the living room, as the news correspondents list a series of events that have devastated our world. In the last month alone, our country has experienced four hurricanes and the largest mass shooting in modern United States history. While my college applications are essential to my future, helping my fellow world citizens is essential to the future of the world. While I may be just an 18 year old, I believe that everyone can make a difference if they reach out with a helping hand.

Before you try to help yourself get ahead, think about who needs to get off the freeway at that exit more. Is it you, the high schooler who is going to be 5 minutes late to class, or is it the woman who is running to her first of three jobs that she needs to maintain in order to provide for her family?

Next time you see the driver in front of you put their turn signal on, let them pass, and give them a little smile while you’re at it too.