Strangers’ Small Acts That Changed Lives Forever: Stories That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity
I came away thinking that in spite of being demographically very different, our similarities are much greater than our differences.
I was walking along a sidewalk in midtown when there was a sudden heavy downpour.
A kind man nearby shared his large umbrella with me all the way to my destination 9 blocks away.
It was a simple act of sharing and kindness that I’ll never forget.
I met a guy on the bus one day. He and I looked very much like brother and sister. VERY MUCH. We talked for the whole bus trip, each of us opting to miss our respective stops. We ditched our plans and spent the whole day together at the beach, just talking and walking. Our connection was immediate. It was an amazing day. We never saw each other again, but I never forgot.
One guy was playing one of those word puzzles on his phone on the train. He was stuck on one of the words I chimed in and told him the word and then everyone inside the train block started telling him the words and it was a really cool experience because people usually keep to themselves in a train journey however my one suggestion was a sort of an icebreaker for everyone.
I’m a white, overly educated guy that works for the university system. I was a bit out of place at the monster truck show I was attending, but I didn’t care: monster trucks, yo. I had to use the restroom and the latrine was empty. I was at the urinal when another man–a very large, overweight, camouflage wearing dude comes bee-bopping in and pulls up to the urinal at the other end. This man farted so loud and so hard as he was taking a p**s that the automatic paper towel dispenser behind us spits out a sheet of brown hand drying loveliness.
We both looked at each other and started laughing. Not just ‘haha that was cool bro’ laughing. It was the funniest s**t either of us have ever witnessed in our entire life. I honestly don’t even remember if I pi**ed. We were laughing so hard that we were both hyperventilating. There was backslapping and bent over belly laughter as we were both pointing at the dangling paper towel in marvel.
We eventually exited the restroom, still laughing and guffawing. Me, a Yankee from way up north and this good ole boy from the deep south had a significant moment. I never got his name, but I will never forget how the air in that empty stadium latrine vibrated as this man broke wind.
I went for an interview for a residency program. The programs usually interview multiple people per day at the same time. Everyone is so nervous sitting around prior to the interview, that no one talks. For one of my interviews, there were only two of us. The other girl came up to me and we both started talking about how nervous we were. She hugged me and said “Well, you seem really nice. I hope we both match here and get to work together”. After the interviews were over, she hugged me again and said she knew we would be friends in the future. It was an interesting interaction to say the least. Funny thing is, neither of us matched at that site, but ended up matching together at another program. She is one of the nicest/kindest people I have ever met. Definitely my work bestie.
I put off changing my name after getting married until my son was born a year later. I had to trudge all over downtown with a newborn in tow to get a copy of my marriage license, go to the DMV, and finally social security office. It was at the social security office that my son decided it was time to eat. I started to discreetly nurse him and a security guard looked in my direction. “Hey, you can’t do that here!”
Two women jumped to my defense before I could even look up. “That is a federally granted right!” “She is feeding a baby! Are you against babies eating?!” “You keep nursing that baby, honey! It’s a gift!”
The security guard gave them a weird look and tapped on a lady’s shoulder in a seat two rows ahead of me. “Ma’am, you cannot make phone calls inside.”
It wasn’t even about me, but these two ladies jumped to my defense. I greatly appreciated it. I thanked them profusely.
In a mosh pit by myself (I happened to catch a show while on vacation), I’m a 5’2 tiny chick so while I can and do hold my own, sometimes the crowd…squashes me. And this one was one of those “push in tight” pits, and I was literally getting squeezed. Two random dudes who were each a foot taller than me grabbed me up and got me between them and acted like human barricades while I caught my breath.
They were total gentlemen and did it just to be awesome, but one of them them was really cute and I seriously wished I had been single at that time.
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