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It's Not a Pleasure to Meet You!



“Hi, how are you?”          “It’s a pleasure to meet you!”          

“Sorry for interrupting...”

It was always engrained in my mind to say these things when I talked to someone, sort of like I was on auto pilot. Truthfully, there was never a genuine meaning behind saying these things because I was so accustomed to doing the same routine over and over again. I didn’t genuinely think “it’s nice to meet you” in my mind.

Even if someone is genuinely happy to meet a person, saying that common phrase does not necessarily express their gratitude, it’s more of a habit they’re used to saying on command.

I was told to ask people how they are doing so I would sound polite and mature. That was simply the main motive behind saying these things: not because I truly meant it, but rather because it showed my personality to the person I was meeting. Presenting myself this way made them have a positive first impression of me.


Working in customer service I would give the same spiel to everyone that came to the register. Every single time I would go, “Hi, how are you today?’ and then a few people would say back, “I’m good. How are you?” and then I would assume that they’re nice people, just because they asked it back, not necessarily because I felt like they actually cared.

And then there’s other people that wouldn’t say anything back to me, and I assumed that they were either preoccupied, in a bad mood, or just not a nice person, which shows how these common phrases project someone out to the world. And then at the end of the transaction I would say, “Have a good day,” just out of habit. Every. Single. Time.

There are good intentions behind these polite phrases, truly. But they do not encompass a large amount of genuineness; they simply function to show others who you are as a person.



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