Unexpected generosity
June 30th, 2007
I was at the campus convenience store, picking up a few things to snack on at work. I got in line. It was a long line.
The girl in front of me turned around and glanced at what I had in my hands. Some yogurt, some chips, one of those little burrito things, a drink. Then she faced front again. We waited in line some more. After a minute or two, she turned back around and said, “This might sound weird, but can I buy your lunch for you?”
I looked up, surprised. “Uh, sure! Yes, that would be really nice!”
“Well,” she said, “it’s just that I have this meal card, and it has a lot of money on it that hasn’t been spent, and it will go to waste if I don’t spend it.”
“Oh, that happened to me too,” I said. “I used to buy food for all my friends.”
[My first year in school, I lived in the dorms, and part of the dorm package was a meal card, preloaded with money for the academic year. There were three meal plan sizes offered, and I had the smallest one, but it was still too big. (I think I was mostly living on cigarettes then.) So, I would buy lunches and desserts and stuff for people I knew who didn’t have a meal card. Even then I couldn’t use up the whole thing… judging by her offer, the meal plan sizes are still a bit off.]
We continued to wait in line. I noticed she had a handful of some kind of energy bars and and so I tried to make some comment about that being a good idea for using up the card, but she didn’t really respond. Then I felt a little bit lame. And we were still waiting in line.
Waiting, waiting. Step forward, pause, step forward. I started to feel like I was following her. It was a weird feeling, having this unexpected bond with this perfect stranger. It was a small bond, but it was there.
The feeling got even weirder when we arrived at the front of the line and I stepped up beside her to put my items down. By this time, my introverted self was definitely stressed by the prolonged, unexpected, sort of awkward interaction with this stranger. I was starting to feel nervous, and kind of stalky. Or — afraid of being perceived as stalky? Uncomfortable, anyway.
The cashier helped us load our stuff into separate bags. When I thanked him, she thought I was addressing her. She said “You’re welcome” and walked off. But I hadn’t properly thanked her!* So I caught up to her — she had only gone a few steps — and I said “Thank you so much!” She smiled, said “No problem,” and we went our separate ways.
Hopefully my attempts to make her feel appreciated didn’t just freak her out instead. She didn’t seem freaked, but who knows.
___________________
* I’m not exactly sure why, but I needed to show her a big, sincere Thank You. Maybe it’s something to do with generosity and gratitude going hand in hand. Generosity creates gratitude, gratitude increases generosity. The more generosity and gratitude in the world, the better. Yes. Yesh.
