The person stamping a page can change a day without hearing its whole story.

Small official acts land on lives the official cannot see. The clerk stamping a form does not know it is the last document before a visa, a discharge, or a year of waiting ending, and the same two seconds mean something entirely different on each side of the counter. Routine on one side is rarely routine on the other.

If your work involves moments like that, slow the last few seconds and stay pleasant even when you are tired. If you are on the receiving side, say what it means to you when you can. Most people never learn what their stamp did.