Dont Assume

Jay Mateo 6/26/13

A myth that I believed was true about New York City was that New Yorkers were one of the rudest people in the world but it's not true. I was told this myth, which I heard before, by a teacher when I was in the 7th grade. She had recently moved from the Midwest and was telling us a story of how she accidently bumped into a woman on the train while coming to school, which resulted in that woman cursing her out even when my teacher apologized for the accidental bump, she even wanted to fight her. In result of that situation, she was certain that New Yorkers were the rudest because she never experienced anything like it. I believed her; growing up as a kid in Brooklyn I would always see New Yorkers cursing one another out on the train, having extreme road rage, yelling or fighting on the street over the most idiotic things. However I had a experience last year which made me realize the myth of New Yorkers being rude is false. It was a cold December midnight, it had to be in extreme freezing temperature, I was leaving work and walking to my car when I noticed my car had a flat tire and I had to replace the flat with the spare tire. While I was going to the trunk to get the car jack a man pulled aside and asked me if I was moving out of the spot, I said "not for some time I got a flat" and he responded "let me help you it's too cold out here for you to do this alone". So he immediately drove a few feet up double parked and got out of his car to help. Together we were able to switch out the tires within 5-10 minutes compared to however long it would have taken for me to do it myself. So after I switched out the tires I moved out of the parking spot and he moved into the spot. I thanked him for his help and offered to buy him pizza but he politely declined, he said "now that your moving I get to park in front of my job, so it worked out for both of us". I bought him pizza anyways because he came out of his way to help in the freezing cold. On...