If the person in front of you on an airplane reclines their chair, should you do the same?

On my last international flight, the lady in front of me rammed her seat back into my knees three different times before finally using her whole body to overpower me and plow through my long legs that were already crammed in economy class.

Maybe she thought her seat was jammed and didn’t realize that she was pushing through another human being to create a little extra space for herself. Or maybe she knew exactly what she was doing.

Regardless, it was incredibly rude and inconvenient for me.

But just because someone has been rude to me, does that mean I’m justified to pass it on?

I don’t think so.

Sure, the argument can be made that I now have less room, so I should take some of the room from the person behind me, but where does it stop?

And why do I get to frustrate the person behind me and make their decision for them, simply because I’m frustrated?

Part of being a positive and good person involves occasionally doing more than our fair share. Sometimes, it’ll feel like we’re getting the short end of the stick. But it’s worth it in the long run.

Maybe it helps to ever so slightly make the world a better place, but more importantly, it helps improve our own personal experience in it.

Driving like a maniac because someone honked at us doesn’t do us any good. It’s much more enjoyable to laugh it off and get back to enjoying our day.

-Brandon