I met so many nice people...

One thing that struck me about a week ago. I was talking to someone else who did the MS Ride for the first time last year, and we talked about doing it again. She got wide eyed and said, "I met so many nice people!"

I thought about that, and it just became so obvious. When you do something like that, you are bound to meet "so many nice people." Think about it. You have a bunch of folks who are dedicating a lot of time over the summer to do a two day bike ride to benefit a great cause. Some of them do it purely for the personal challenge, and some of them treat it like a race, and for them, the motivation may be different. I won't speak for them, but it may be different. I don't want to insinuate that bike racers can't be nice people too. Most of the people, though, aren't bike racers, and that isn't their primary motivation. They're people wanting to do something to make a difference, and that's a big part of why they're there. They may have other reasons, like trying to get or stay fit, but they want to help someone other than themselves. When you get that many people like that in one place, you almost have to meet "so many nice people." This is one of the things nice people gravitate to. I also won't guarantee everyone you meet at something like that will be nice. Jerks exist everywhere. It's just, when the focus of a gathering is to help other people, you will find a higher concentration of nice people than you will at many other events.

So there you have the Lumberyard advice piece for the day. If you want to go out and meet nice people, find a thing that attracts nice people, and be a part of it. Something like the MS Bike Ride nearest you would be one, but that's my thing, and not necessarily yours. There are plenty of others that involve giving back to your community in some fashion, making a personal sacrifice for someone who needs you. You'll find some nice people there, in greater numbers than you might in a bar on a Friday night.