On Monday, as I was leaving for lunch, a student asks me for $0.05. Now, I don’t usually carry cash, so I gave her my BuzzCard and told her to just swipe it in the vending machine to get what she was going to get if I had the $0.05 to give her. And just for clarity, a BuzzCard is our on campus ID card, and you can put money on it to use at most places on campus. But back to the story.
So she has this look on her face of disbelief, and I have a look of confusion on mine. She then says that she can’t believe I did that. To which I told her, hey, if I can help when someone needs help, I help. I’m not sure if she was a grad student or not, but she was a brown skinned sista who was in need. Now, anyone who really knows me, knows that I believe that we have to look out for each other, because no one else is going to.
So as we are standing there, she proceeds to tell me how beautiful of a person I am for letting her use my BuzzCard to get what she was going to get. Now, it was something from the vending machine, and it was maybe $1.75, not a big deal at all to me, but I get that the gesture is what she was shocked by. She says how people just don’t stop and help other people these days, let alone just buy them what it is they were trying to get. We talked a for a bit, and then went our separate ways.
In life, we all have the power to help or harm people. Which of those options we choose is completely up to each individual. I choose to help people when I can, and I hope that my acts of kindness will influence others to do the same. To me, those acts of kindness and our ability to help people are two of the most important reasons why we are here on this rock floating in space.