This is a tad bit long, so please bear with me.

Alright, so I live on the second floor of an apartment complex and it's set up in such a way that there's one central elevator and stairwells outside on the corners of the building, and my place is much closer to the elevator than the stairs. When going to and from the complex I usually take the stairs when I can because it's more convenient for than waiting for the elevator, but right now it's dark and chilly out so I decided to just take the elevator to the lobby because I wasn't leaving the building. On my way back up another guy gets in with me and is going to the 6th floor. When I'm heading out of the elevator on the second floor, when I'm maybe 20 or so feet away already, this guy calls out "Next time take the stairs" in a harsh tone and says something under his breath. The elevator door is closing and I'm already too far away to say anything back.

Look, I get why he might be a little frustrated, but not to the point of needing to say something. He was probably drunk anyway but that's not really why I'm writing this.

For the next 5 to 10 minutes in my room I could feel the anxiety building a bit. You all know that feeling: head starts to race, knots in your stomach, tensing up, etc. I was extremely frustrated that I didn't get a chance to say something back to that guy (then again I don't know what I would've even said, and nothing would've made a positive difference anyway). I don't really understand why I got so anxious over it because consciously I knew he was just a jerk and I should just let it go. I just don't understand what prompted the need to make that comment in the way that he did.

This is a small event, and frankly I'm over it now, but it sums up a lot of my anxiety. I want to try to work on it because I can't go through life getting extremely anxious/upset over everything everyone says. I mean, how do you guys deal with shitty people? I obviously don't want to start fights all the time, so how do I cope with assholes?