“Make my day,” was a famous line from the Dirty Harry movies. A more appropriate take from that series would be to make someone else’s day. Mariska Hargitay said that “Just smiling at someone walking down the street can make the person’s day. It’s all about paying it forward.”
I remember a rather unique opportunity I had to make a person’s day many years ago.
While I was the Dean of Student Administrative Services at Weber State University, graduation was one of my areas of responsibility. I well remember an occasion when a senior student near graduation was involved in a terrible accident. He was not expected to live very long, and his parents called and asked if he could be given his degree before he passed away. The problem was that he hadn’t finished his last term, and those credit hours were necessary to meet all of the requirements for his graduation. I talked with his instructors, and they were confident that the student had been progressing satisfactorily and would have successfully completed their courses had it not been for the accident. I talked with the Academic Vice President about the situation and the student’s parents expressed desire for their dying son. The request was taken to the President’s Staff where they approved issuing the diploma prior to the completion of the term. Where diplomas are usually all printed at the same time, I had his diploma made up special. I informed his parents of the decision and set a time when they would be there while I presented the diploma to their son. At the appointed time, I went to the hospital with his diploma in hand. He was lying in his hospital bed and was unable to take it in his hand, so while holding it in front of him, I said in effect that by the authority vested in me by the University, “I hereby award this Bachelor Degree diploma from Weber State University to (his name).” Tears were rolling down his cheeks and the cheeks of his parents. I would be lying if I were to deny that tears were running down my cheeks as well. He died a short while later. “Making someone’s day” in that way is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But there are many ways to “make someone’s day.”
The easiest way to make someone’s day and yours as well is to follow Mariska Hargitay’s advice. Smile and say kind things, even to strangers. If you do know the person, then what you say will be more personal, you can actually say something nice about them and their family. My wife and I often eat lunch together in local restaurants, and wherever we have eaten, I have been making it a habit to tell the employees how much I enjoyed my lunch and their service. It is amazing how they light up while someone is complimenting them. In many cases, I’m sure that I have “made their day” just with a few short/simple kind words.
It doesn’t matter where we are or what we are doing during the course of the day. There will always be opportunities to make a person’s or people’s day. The most wonderful thing about “making someone else’s day” is that you always “make your own day” at the same time. Just not the way Harry did.