Has anyone ever told you to “be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about”? I’ve heard it a million times over the past several years. Always letting it go in one ear and out the other because, to my standards, I was always kind. I was not worried about anyone else’s personal battles because I did not see myself ever treating someone negatively, ever.

Needless to say, I’m not ALWAYS kind. I am sure I’ve slipped up here and there. Positive, actually.

Anyway, this saying didn’t truly click with me until I watched the movie 50/50 for the first time. You know, the one with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anna Kendrick where JGL’s character, Adam, gets cancer? Yeah, that movie did some things to my brain that it probably wasn’t intended to.

The scene immediately following Adam receiving his unfortunate news finds him walking through the hallways of the hospital to find an exit, and then walking through the city to head home. He doesn’t talk to anyone, and no one talks to him, but he is surrounded by strangers as he makes his way. This influenced me, and I mean REALLY influenced me.

None of the people in the hospital (with the exception of his doctor, of course) or on the sidewalks of NYC knew that the guy passing by them with the blank stare had just found out he has cancer. None of them. Think about that.

Okay, I know this is just a movie, but think about it on a realistic level: So many people have been diagnosed with this disease in the past and will be diagnosed with it in the future. Any stranger they came in contact with after receiving the news had no idea what they were going through. Which brings us back to the whole “be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”

You don’t know if the lady at the grocery store who was rude to you is just simply a bitch, or if her husband just filed for divorce and all she wants to do is lay in bed and cry, but she can’t because she has to have dinner on the table for her children at 6 o’clock to do her best to pretend everything is still “okay.” You don’t know if the asshole teenager that cut you off while driving downtown is reckless because of their age, or because they’ve been abused one too many times by their mother or father and had to quickly get out of the situation. You don’t know if the guy that snubbed by you on the sidewalk is just in a rush for his own selfish reasons, or if he just found out he has cancer and is having a hard time coping. You just don’t know.

I think about this every time I go anywhere or do anything. I let the little things slide. No matter how rude, inconsiderate, or out of line someone is. I take a second to realize that I do not know what made them that way and I try to react with positivity regardless of the situation.

You never know… Maybe your attempt at understanding and your offering of kindness can turn their day around just a little bit. They may need it more than you think.