Once in a Lifetime

Every day, on my way to the bus stop, I use a sidewalk that crosses a Starbucks drive-through exit. All of the cars leaving the drive-through are turning right (it's a divided road, so they can only turn right), so the drivers typically only look to the left, to watch for an opening in traffic. Since I approach on the drivers' right, they don't see me. Sometimes I'm in the middle of the exit as they pull away from the window, and they still don't see me. Who knew people could be so focused on their coffee and the traffic coming from the left? Anyway, I usually manage to either jump out of the way or wave my arms enough for them to stop. It's an adventurous way to start the day, almost getting run over. Today, though, the woman who almost hit me with her truck actually stopped, rolled down the window, and apologized profusely. This has never happened before. It was great! Usually people either ignore me even more, nod at me (are they expecting me to nod back?), give me the finger, or say something nasty out the window to me. "Watch where you're going!" is a phrase I hear a lot. But an apology was like a whole new world. Truly, I wanted to hug the woman. Next time I accidentally almost kill someone, I'm going to apologize, just because I know how good it feels to be on the other side. Isn't that called paying it forward?