“A lobby filled with literature yet no one picks it up,” I thought as I sat waiting for my name to be called. The business parade of people handing their keys over to strangers who state they will take good care of you while you wait for them to charge you accordingly always amazes me.
I noticed a young man entering the establishment while I sit uncomfortably, wearily waiting and watching. He goes about his business abruptly and steadfast, hauling in uniforms that are crisp and clean unlike the nature of the business he brings them to. The management attempts to question him on his personal life as he goes about his own business focused clearly on completing his tasks. I remember thinking that he handled himself well, as he didn’t dismiss the questioning yet did not offer any relevant information to the nosy supervisor suspicious of his character. He was there to complete a job and it appeared he would do so with a no nonsense yet welcoming attitude.
In and out, this young man went carrying items to the back area where he disappeared into a cloud of employees gathering around distracting his obvious goals for the day. Upon his last entrance into the building, he brought in rolled up carpets. As I watched him peer at the old rugs on the floor, he carefully rolled them up with his strong hands evenly and then with his steel-toed workboots as he brought the carpeting to a perfect end, scooped up and repeated the process three trivial times, all with a confident and satisfying look on his face. He unrolled the new dark carpeting strategically as one would operate on in an emergency room. The pace was quick and once completed he did the walk. This walk was filled with intent to take out the wrinkles, all while some employees would try to intervene with a joke or comment that was crude and sometimes embarrassing. As he finished rolling out the welcome mats, this young man gathered one by one the old carpets and collectively covered himself with uniforms to be cleaned.
As I knew he had his hands full and headed towards the door, I jumped up to open it for him as it was the right thing to do. He looked up at me and said, “Oh, thank you. I’m used to this.” His smile was confident and soft spoken, a welcome mat language expressing courage and courtesies of a job well done. He is a person who knows what the true meaning of welcome really is, a man I will never forget. One who rolls out the welcome mat, a very rich, wise, young man with a simple smile.
