Gina Branch

Over the course of a three-day span, I witnessed three separate random acts of kindness.  I was pleasantly surprised at what a positive impact they had on my day.

It was a Friday afternoon during rush hour when I was leaving Lowe’s.  As I looked out onto the highway access road from the parking lot, I noticed a truck stopped with its hazard lights on and an older gentleman picking up debris in the road.  He had loaded a new grill into the back of his truck that somehow came loose and fell out onto the road.  There were knobs and small pieces rolling everywhere.  All this was happening over a hill where oncoming traffic would be quickly approaching at 60 miles per hour.  In an instant, two drivers stopped to help.  One man was able to roll what was left of the grill up onto a sidewalk.  A lady stopped to help with the remainder of the pieces in the road.  Luckily, the driver got himself and his truck into a parking lot before oncoming traffic would cause a certain tragedy.  Those good Samaritans didn’t have to stop, but they did.

The next evening, our daughter had her Sweet 16 birthday and we celebrated at The Cheesecake Factory.  When we arrived, we noticed a business colleague having dinner at a nearby booth.  We went over to say hello before we were shown to our table.  We enjoyed dinner very much and finally had to call it a night.  When we asked for the bill, the server told us that our colleague had taken care of it.  She paid for a birthday dinner for someone she just met.  That was totally unexpected and unnecessary, but very much appreciated.  I couldn’t believe it.  What a nice gesture.

The morning after, I hit the drive through at Starbuck’s.  The line was long and my patience was short.  When I finally reached the window, the guy said, “The customer in line ahead of you paid for your coffee.”  He must have seen the puzzled look on my face.  Apparently customers do this from time to time, but it was the first time someone had done it for me.  What a nice thing to do!  This was truly a random act of kindness.  I’ll never be able to thank the person.  I sure felt great when I left Starbuck’s and promised myself I would do the same thing for somebody else next time I’m back.

All of these random acts of kindness were very uplifting and renewed my faith in people.  There really are nice people out there who do nice things without expecting anything in return.  Furthermore, this experience motivated me to become more like those nice people.  Think about how one small random act of kindness can positively impact someone’s day and act on it.  If there were more of this going on, the world would be a much nicer place.