Just sayin'. and Chivalry.

It's a definite possibility that I have the greatest boyfriend in the world. Just sayin'. He brought me flowers today just because, which in my opinion is one of the best reasons to do it. As wonderful as that was, and despite it being the opener for this post, it's not my subject matter. Instead, I wanted to have a reflection on chivalry.


 Chivalry is gallantry, courtesy, or honor, or the demonstration of any of these qualities (that's not a precise definition, as the true one involves knights and horses; but for the purpose of this blog I went with something a little more modern and recognizable.)
Many people say that chivalry is dead in our society and that there are no more gentlemen. 
I beg to differ.
I see many examples of chivalry every day; the most frequent one is on campus, while walking through any doorway, I rarely have to open the door myself. Guys always do it, for which I'm sure to say thank you every time. Just as important as men observing the courtesies dictated by chivalry, is ladies remembering their manners and acknowledging when a boy or man does something nice.
Perhaps my interaction with gentlemen is skewed; since I attend BYU it's likely that we have a disproportionate number of gentlemen at my university.
But at work tonight, I saw another example of chivalry that I was personally glad for. It was just myself, a guy sales associate, and our manager closing the store for the night. Around midnight the manager approached us saying one of us could now go home, but the other would need to stay with him until he was finished closing. Without hesitation my co-worker told the manager to let the lady go home, and that he would stay. He also walked me to the mall entrance and watched to make sure that I made it to my car. Although we work together we don't know one another very well, and this simple gesture really touched me. It was thoughtful and incredibly gentlemanly.


From boys who open doors to ones who bring you flowers for no reason at all, I know that there is still chivalry out there. I have faith in society that there is still that much good in us.