Southern hospitality is real, and it starts at the airport

We’ve all been to those restaurants with waiters who disappear at the worst times or those airports where the security officers are all surly and all too willing to make your flight a little more inconvenient.

And if you’ve lived in the United States long enough, you’ve probably seen some comedy show or some person lampoon the South, putting on a hick accent to mock some ridiculous opinion. But if you ever come down South, visit a place like sunny old Atlanta, you’ll find that there’s a lot more here than meets the eye.

Holy shit, people at the airport are actually pleasant

When I first set foot in Atlanta, I braced myself. After a few hours crammed onto an airplane, I was in no mood to deal with people. All I wanted to do at the point was curl up into myself and just rest than face the brusque nature of most vendors and waiters.

As I trudged past the pasted-on smiles of the flight attendants and reached the baggage claim, I went to go grab some lunch. I braced myself, got myself into the “pleasant customer” mindset that hopefully wouldn’t make me deal with some grouch. As a New Jersey native, I was fully expecting a gruff “whaddaya want” or an apathetic “hi, can I help you?”. But I felt jolted out of my airplane induced stupor when the Popeyes server at the airport gave me a big smile and almost cheered, “Hi, welcome to Atlanta! What can I get you today?”

After staring down surly TSA officers all day, I was not expecting that. Stumbling over my words, I ordered my food, and got it a few moments later with an exuberant “Alrighty! Have a great day!” There wasn’t a single judgmental look at “that asshole who can’t speak English to save his life”, just a smile.

You could actually talk with them all day

A lot of jobs encourage just enough interaction to get the bosses their money but not enough to make their business inefficient. Throughout my final year of high school, I’d hear crazy little anecdotes about how my friends would run into each other as both cashiers and customers at supermarkets and get shooed out before their boss showed up. One particularly crazy visit actually had a friend hang out with the employed friend at a grocery store bagging customer goods for free in exchange for being allowed in the store. (Spoiler alert- he was kicked out and the employee chewed out for allowing the friend to stay).

But Atlanta is the first city that almost appears to encourage and nurture interaction- the employees don’t sound like droning robots running through a script, and people seem to be able to briefly talk with one another.

…and it’s not awkward at all!

I’ve chatted with almost all of my Uber drivers through the whole ride about some really interesting topics. A former paralegal, for example, talked to me about how employment works in the South as opposed to the North (employment tip, by the way, the North apparently puts more emphasis on gaining experience while the South focuses on the quality of your education). And you know what? I’d much rather chat about how my driver had Macklemore in her car without realizing it than just sit in an awkward silence as I did when I arrived home in Newark Liberty International Airport to come home.

To me, it felt like the Uber driver stared straight ahead and drove, not saying much, dead set on getting his job done and not much else. Inwardly shrugging, I pulled out my phone and ended up expending almost all of the remaining battery power before I found my way home.

Living in Atlanta has reminded me that employees are humans too

And even now, whether I’m buying some random thing or I’m getting my plumbing fixed, I try to be as honest and nice as I can to workers to brighten their day a bit. Because although I might not know it, every employee is a person with their own experiences and personalities, and I’m not one to shit on their day because they’re unhappy at work.