Constant Kindness…

February Fun Facts

So, I was going to take my time with today’s fun fact and get a whole bunch of people to list nice things they’ve done for people since today is Act of Random Kindness Day, but I changed my mind. Instead I’m going to tell you about an act of random kindness that was given to me last night.



I was having a crappy day and on the highway on my way home from work one of the belts inside my car snapped. It was loud-ish and not long after that the engine light came on and then of course a bunch of other creepy blinking lights followed. If that wasn’t enough to tell me something was wrong the engine started smoking.

I’m going to go ahead and say that’s probably never a good thing. So I pulled off the highway and the furthest I can make it is this tiny little Exxon gas station that doesn’t have any mechanics or anything. So here I am it’s after six at night, below forty degrees and raining. I’m stuck thirty-five minutes from home and I was probably a lot closer than I wanted to admit to just kicking the car and crying.

I didn’t know the area so I couldn’t find a tow truck and the person pumping gas was useless. No really, think of one wall and that’s about how useless the guy was. Anyway, a small SUV pulls up next to my car and there’s this guy and I assume his Father in it. The guy must have seen I was close to going ape shit because he asked if everything was alright and I think I blubbered out something about my car and how it’s stupid and smoking and that’s unhealthy.

But despite my incoherent babbling he walked me into the little store of the gas station, used his phone to find me three different 24-hour tow truck companies and then waited for me to call them all to price check and finally have one of them come pick me up. He and his Father didn’t leave until I assured them both I was alright and could wait for the truck on my own because I didn’t want to inconvenience them. They sort of looked like they were coming home from work.

Now maybe you’re sitting there reading this getting bored and going what is this bitch going on about, so someone got her phone numbers, big fucking deal. It is a big deal to me. I was literally having a terrible day. Everything that could go wrong did because of Newton and his god forsaken law, and though parents say they will be there when you need them apparently once you pass a certain age that doesn’t extend to driving in the rain to pick you up when your car dies a half hour from home.

So that small gesture of getting me the numbers and taking the time to make sure I was okay and had what I needed meant so much. I don’t think any of us realize how one small act of kindness goes such a long way. They could have ignored me. They could have been annoyed and had an attitude, but they weren’t.

Maybe you could care less about this and I admit it’s not my most exciting story, but it has a point where most of my others don’t. There are eight hours left of this day, take that time to go out and do something nice for someone. Even if it’s something small because you never know how that one small act can make a difference in a person’s day.