Responsibility Isn’t Just for Close Relationships

“Character is how you treat those you think you’ll never see again.”

Many of us are careful with how we treat our friends, family, and coworkers — the people closest to us. We apologize when we’ve hurt them, we think before we speak, and we try to be better for the sake of the relationship.

But what about the people we don’t know? The driver we cut off. The stranger we scoff at online. The customer service rep we snap at. These interactions are often dismissed as unimportant — “I don’t know them, I don’t owe them anything.”

Yet this is where the true test of responsibility lies. Because being kind to people we care about is expected. Being decent to strangers, even in passing, is a choice. And it’s in these moments that we reveal the truest version of ourselves.

Responsibility doesn’t start and end with our inner circle. It applies to how we move through public spaces, how we speak online, how we respond to interruptions, delays, and inconveniences. Our impact is not lessened because the connection is brief. In fact, these small interactions can have disproportionate power — to heal or to harm.

A smile, a thank you, a patient tone — they cost nothing, yet they uphold the invisible social threads that hold us together.

We don’t have to become saints. We don’t have to be warm and friendly 24/7. But we do carry a basic human responsibility in every space we enter: to not cause unnecessary harm. To remember that everyone is someone to someone.

You may never see that person again. But they’ll remember how they were treated. That matter