Proud to be an American

I work in a service based industry.

Essentially, it's my biggest duty to make sure customers are happy.

It's what I do all day, every day and I'm very good at it.

Friday I had the pleasure of taking care of some customers who originally hail from Russia. They had purchased products from the company for which I work and needed to exchange one of them.

No problem, right?

Wrong.

I have never seen two people more timid than this couple as they walked up to my desk on Friday afternoon. Of course I took care of them and then at the end the wife began thanking me profusely for helping them. She began to confide in me that they were so nervous about coming in, they almost didn't even try to make an exchange and they were so excited that my company was going to oblige their wants/needs.

I told her that of course we/I would always take care of them and that there was no need to be nervous. It was then she told me why they were initially nervous.

Her exact words were this: "When you come from a Communist country, you don't complain no matter how miserable you are. You keep your mouth shut and be grateful that you are allowed to have what you do."

I almost cried.

If I don't say it enough, I'm proud to be an American.