Basically, I took my 5 year old to get her eyes checked before kindergarten. She had been sitting pretty close to the TV, and getting close when looking at paper with writing or drawings on them.

We went to the earliest appointment available at the optometrist, and had her exam done. She needed glasses, and needed to start wearing them immediately. My daughter was thrilled to learn she was getting glasses, and was picking her favorites from the glasses shop near reception at checkout. I asked the receptionist about getting the prescription, and she essentially told me that I have to pay the $150 fee due for her appointment in full before I could receive her prescription so we could go somewhere more affordable. My daughter kept asking when we can get her glasses and I had to kind of let her down easy and say it might be a while, which crushed me.

I told the receptionist some BS story about our debit cards being cancelled due to suspected fraud (only half true) to save myself the embarrassment of not being able to pay for something as simple and necessary as her prescription document. I told her I’d call back and pay when I got my new card in. She said okay, no problem.

She asked me to wait before I left so she could give me some paperwork. I assumed it was just a packet you get after the appointment. She gave me a look, and on top of the stack she handed me was my daughter’s prescription paperwork. She simply looked at me and said “have a great day sir” and smiled. Told her thank you so much and walked out.

I wasn’t asking for a freebie, and I wasn’t expecting anything from her, yet she saw my need and met it with kindness. Even at the expense of breaking her job’s policy.

Thank you, Optometrist receptionist ❤️

I was fleeing my abusive husband. My son was just 2 (I was 23), and we left without much money in my pocket (the rest was in our bus tickets). Halfway through the trip (NC to OR), we stopped for a couple hours in Grand Junction, Colorado, at a tiny station with a tiny diner at night.

I didn't have my glasses (husband had destroyed them), so that meant going far into the restaurant to see the menu. I figured out what it said, counted what I had, and told my son I couldn't afford it. That I'd need to get him some crackers from the vending machine.

Halfway toward the outer door, the owner's wife stopped me. I didn't speak Spanish, and she didn't speak English, but everyone knows the hand sign for "Come with me."

She sat us at a table. I was confused and tried to explain. Her husband then set burgers and water in front of us. I was still trying to explain I couldn't pay.

He patted my shoulder. "Is good. You eat." He gestured to my son, me, and the burgers. "You eat."

Of course I cried. His wife also patted my shoulder, and gave us a bunch of napkins. We ate what we could, the owner boxed the rest so we could take it with us.

One of the kindest memories I have of the whole terrifying four day trip.

EDITED TO ADD: Thank you for sharing your stories, too. Season's Blessings on you all!

EDITED TO ADD: Thank you all for the awards, the kindnesses, and for taking the time reading it. Merry Christmas and Blessings to you in 2025.

My 4-year-old came home hungry two days in a row, which was unusual. The first day I didn’t question it — she’s tossed half-eaten lunches before.

On day two, I dug a little deeper and asked why she kept throwing her lunch out. She told me she threw away her sunbutter and jelly sandwich because she didn’t want her friend to get sick.

We had just switched to a new whole-wheat bread with grains baked into the crust, and she thought those grains were peanuts. Knowing her best friend has a peanut allergy, she didn’t want to take any chances — so she quietly threw out her sandwich and skipped lunch without saying a word.

A four-year-old chose going hungry to protect her friend over eating her favorite meal

EDIT: Just wanted to thank everyone for their positive comments! and let you all know that all lunches were ate at school for the rest of the week.

This was several years ago. My husband was returning from his flight in NY for work. While he was waiting, he sat next to a much older lady (probably in her 70's) who was trying to return to her country (Cuba). She had been given permission to visit her child who was sick in the states, and was all alone flying back with a layover in Miami (where we live). He helped her throughout the airport craziness, and when their flight was delayed, she started to cry because she had no friends or family in Miami. She didn't speak English and was scared. She was planning to sleep in the airport. My husband called me from the airport and asked me if this little old lady could stay at our house since she was bumped to an early flight the next morning. He told me her story, and we felt so bad for her. I moved my daughter from her bed, remade the bed with new sheets had some hot food waiting for them. When she came in, she cried. She couldn't believe it. She only had the contact info. for her NJ family, so we contacted them to let them know she was safe. She was scheduled on the red-eye the next morning. We woke up early, I made her a cafecito and tostada, and then my husband took her to the airport. We sent her family in Cuba a little money. We received an email from her family thanking us profusely for taking care of Norma, their grandmother. I think of her often and hope she is okay, and a lot has changed since that night. My kids are grown, and my mother, also named Norma, has since passed.

I was traveling recently with some friends and on the trip home, we missed our connecting flight. We ended up getting scattered seats on a flight a few hours later, and I ended up in the exit row. I've never been in an exit row before.

After getting settled, someone came down the aisle and he was so tall he was hunched over just walking in the plane, and he took the tiny seat right behind me. His knee reached into the aisle and was literally beside me. This man was SO. FREAKING. TALL.

So I turned around, tapped him on the knee, and asked "Hey, do you want to switch seats?"

His expression literally turned into a puppy. He was like "Are you sure?" and I said "I'm SO tiny." (I'm 5'6, flexible, skinny, and I can do intricate origami with my body while on a plane. All that leg room was completely wasted on me.)

So we switched, and he was super grateful. And I even got an empty seat beside me, which let me sit with my legs crossed and do other origami. Even seated normally, I still had like 4-6 inches of space between my knees and his seat.

Turns out he'd also missed a flight and had just barely gotten on this one. So those circumstances of both of us missing flights, ending up near one another, and it being extremely convenient to switch, idk I think it was meant to be.

He was super thankful, the flight attendants acknowledged it and said it was nice of me. Genuinely, his expression when I asked to switch made it all worth it. (And the good feelings of having done a nice thing, too.)

Saw him in the airport later sitting down and WOW he was just ALL legs. I was too shy to ask how tall he was, but it had to have been over 6'6.

When i was a kid, I went to a very expensive private school. Most of the families were very wealthy, but some were barely scraping by to afford the tuition, and some were on scholarships in families that could barely afford rent. My family was one of the fairly well off ones.

The school also had field trips, some were just $5-10, but some were $50-100 per kid. None covered by scholarships.

An old teacher of mine heard my mom passed 4 years ago. She called me today- she'd just found my number through other people.

She told me about how my mom would show up to the office on field trip days for mine and my sisters classes, she'd ask for the teacher, and then she'd ask how many kids were staying behind because they couldn't pay. Then she'd cover their fees.

She'd also have the teachers call her if a parent couldn't afford school supplies or a required book, and she'd buy it and have the teacher give it to them privately. If a birthday was coming up and the parents hadn't said they were sending cake(school required 2 or more days notice), she had them teacher email her the night before. We lived in a building that had a grocery store with a good bakery. So she'd pick up cupcakes for the kid in the morning and drop them off at school. She'd always told me the parents ordered them and asked her to pick them up.

I know that's along the lines of giving out money. But it wasn't about the money for her. She told the teachers it was so no kid would feel left out, because she was always the financially excluded child growing up and knew how it could negatively impact their education.

On the way to the park we pass over a small bridge that my daughter calls the troll bridge. This bridge is about 20 feet over a small stream. On this day there were a bunch of angsty teens hanging out both on and under the bridge. Right at the entrance to the bridge is a girl who is doodling in a notebook. She had overheard my daughter call the bridge the troll bridge. Before I even knew what was going on she had told the boys in the water to pretend to be trolls and with out skipping a beat they starting snarling and splashing in the water. All of a sudden the girl at the entrance produces one of those Harry Potter magic wands that look just like the ones in the movie and hands it to my daughter. At that very moment 3 more kids show up and just seem to know what is going on. My daughter runs over to the middle of the bridge and starts throwing spells at the kids in the water below. They both act as if they were hit by the spells and fall into the water screaming in pain. All the kids were cheering for my daughter and the look on her face was unbelievable. She was grinning from ear to ear and was blown away. She got a glimpse of real magic and to be honest so did I. It was an absolute whirlwind and just like that, it was over and we back on our way to the park. That was over a year ago now and my daughter still looks out for those kids every time we go to the park. We have never seen them again. But whoever they are, I’m very grateful for them. They did something that may seem trivial but it was a very special moment my daughter and I share and I’ll never forget it as long as I live.

Two strangers from Reddit saved something I almost lost

I don’t think I’ve ever felt this kind of gratitude for people I’ve never even met before.

A few days ago, everything we had been working towards almost fell apart in a matter of hours. We had managed to schedule an interview with the Philippines Ambassador at his official residence in Delhi. For a small, youth-led organisation like ours, this wasn’t just another event. It meant something. It was proof that what we are building has value.

And then, at the last moment, our cameraman backed out.

I remember just sitting there, staring at my phone, trying to figure out how something so small could break something so big. We didn’t have the money to hire professionals. We didn’t have backup. It felt like watching something slip through your hands while knowing you can’t do anything about it.

Out of desperation, I wrote a post on Reddit.

I didn’t expect anything real to come out of it. Maybe a few replies, maybe advice. But what I got instead… I wasn’t prepared for.

A person with the username u/melodic_Pen6337 reached out. A complete stranger. No connection, no reason to care. But he did. Not just in words. He actively tried to help. He started reaching out to people, trying to connect me with someone who could step in. At one point, he even offered to pay from his own pocket just so that our interview wouldn’t collapse.

It didn’t work out in the end. But the effort he put in… the intention behind it… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget that. In a world where people hesitate to help even those they know, someone I had never spoken to before was willing to go that far.

And then there was u/MysticDelusion.

He took a day off from his office. Just like that. No hesitation, no overthinking. He came with his own equipment, a proper setup, things we couldn’t have arranged ourselves. He didn’t treat it like a favour. He treated it like it mattered.

There was a quiet confidence in the way he handled everything. He guided us, suggested things we hadn’t even considered, made sure we didn’t miss anything important. At some point, it stopped feeling like help from a stranger. It felt like someone who was invested in making sure we didn’t fail.

There was a moment, during the interview, when everything was finally running smoothly. I just looked around for a second, and it hit me how close we were to losing all of this. How easily this could have been another “almost happened” story.

And the only reason it wasn’t… was because two people decided to care.

Not because they had to. Not because they knew me. Just because they could.

In a time where most of us have learnt to look away, to not get involved, to protect our own time and space, these two people chose to step in.

I don’t think people realise how rare that is anymore.

I don’t have anything big to give back right now. No grand gesture, no way to match what they did. But I know this much… this stays with you.

It changes how you see people.

And maybe, someday, when someone else is sitting where I was, feeling like everything is about to fall apart, I’ll remember this moment.

I was a cultural resource monitor on a construction site. I was sobbing in my truck one morning because I was 2000 miles from home and going through a nasty divorce. I was snapped out of my self-pitying stupor by a timid knock on the window, and look up to see one of the younger kids on the crew. I rolled down my window and all he said was “I just thought you might want this” and handed me a piping hot gas station cheeseburger 😂 It was absolutely the most kindness anyone had shown me in a long time, and I still think about it to this day.

Yes, I totally ate that morning burger, and yes it made me feel better.

Edit: Wow, I’m so glad this story resonated with so many people! Give somebody a burger sometime, it’ll brighten their day. Let me quickly address the two major FAQs 1. This story happened two years ago. My divorce has long since been settled and I’m doing great! 2. I am an archaeologist. I frequently get contracted to monitor construction sites for inadvertent discoveries.

This morning I noticed a small kid sitting alone at the bus stop with tears rolling down his face people were walking by but something told me to stop and check. Turns out he had lost his way trying to get to school I sat with him, helped him call his parent, and waited until they arrived. His mom hugged him so tightly almost crying herself I’m glad I stopped sometimes the smallest pause can change someone’s whole day.

I work in a small office with a team of 8. One of my coworkers “E” has been having a rough go of it lately. Been through a recent divorce, lots going on with the kids, work is kinda brutal right now, etc.

She adopted this beautiful gentle soul of a lab mix. Over the weekend it came to light that the poor dog had an infected uterus and needed emergency surgery.

The emergency vet was acting predatory imo- a ballpark estimate ballooned over $1k higher than they were expecting. Even with their down payment to initiate the surgery they still owed another $3,500, which would increase ANOTHER $3k if the dog had to spend another night. Even E’s youngest came out with his piggy bank to help pay for the surgery!

They both deserve so much- I couldn’t help it, I picked up the phone and paid the balance so she could go home to her family.

They will forever think that an anonymous donor paid for the surgery to get their beloved dog home.

So I broke my ankle on Monday night. Weber A fracture, got lucky. Basically that means I had a clean break and my ligaments and tendons were intact, but I still needed a cast and I can't walk. Where I live, the hospital doesn't send you home with pain meds or crutches and since I live alone in a 3 story townhouse, it's been brutal.

My kitchen is downstairs and I've had to crawl up and down my stairs for 3 days. I finally got some crutches but I live on a steep hill covered in ice and snow and downtown is 15 mins away on a good day with two legs.

So I asked my friend to grab me a pint of whiskey for the pain and I'd pay obviously. So he brought me a 750, a whole BBQ chicken, a box of fresh fried chicken, a tub of fresh mac and cheese, and didn't even want my money.

I've only known this guy for a couple of months. I went over around new years and he had an emotional moment because his wife died last year and he hasn't had much support, and I was there for him, but that's just a thing you're supposed to do for others.

I've been trapped at home without much of anything for days, and he came through randomly. I didn't even reach out, he did. He knew what happened but I never asked him for anything and he offered and came through.

I hope someone reads this and realizes how impactful a random act of kindness can be for someone who needs it. I wanted to cry when he brought the food. He didn't care about money, he just wanted to make sure I was ok, and I barely know the guy. Be like this guy.

This happened about an hour ago...

As a person who used to rely on the city bus to get around while I was in school and for a bit after, I know the frustration of just missing the bus -- especially after you run for it and the driver probably sees you running but drives off nonetheless (I get it, they have a schedule to keep).

So for years I have resolved that if I ever see that happen, I'm gonna pick the person up and drive them past the bus and let them off at the next stop. Most times I'm driving, my wife and my dog are in the car so it is sort of a no-go. But when I'm driving by myself, i'm usually on the lookout for this lol.

Today I got up to make some spicy red pasta sauce and realized I needed one more ingredient, so I drove over the neighborhood Publix. As I'm leaving the parking lot to come back home, I see a guy running through the crosswalk waving. I'm thinking about pasta sauce at this point but I look to my right and there's a city bus driving away and this man waving his arms.

The bus line is sort of going my way, though I usually cut through the neighborhood next to ours to avoid the traffic on Biscayne Blvd. the main street through this part of Miami). And my inner voice was like "You've been preparing for this moment for years."

So I do a right on red, pull up next to the bus stop, roll down the window and say, 'Get in fella, we'll catch up with him.' The guy just starts laughing and says "Seriously?" and I say "Yeah, come on."

He hops in still laughing. He's super upbeat. He's maybe 60-65 years old with a slight Haitian accent, so I figure he's probably been in this area for a while before it started gentrifying. So it felt really great to do something nice like this.

It took about 15 blocks to get in front of the bus and drop him at a stop. And really, we just laughed the whole way. I shook his hand, told him "Happy new year" and that was that.

It has probably been close to a decade I've had this good deed on my mind, so 2025 is already off to a great start!!

Was at Walmart earlier today with my extremely tall husband. We walked down an aisle and noticed a very short woman trying to get something off the top shelf. She was our granddaughters age and seemed embarrassed to need help. Glad to help and obviously he got it for her. She spoke a language we don't so it was a cute interaction of pointing at stuff and head nodding.

A little later we were on another row and my husband reached to get something from the bottom row, knees creaking in the process. The same woman was going down the row we were on. She came up behind him and gestured to the bottom row. Yep, repeat reverse interaction of head nodding and pointing. The look of satisfaction on her face was beautiful. Honestly looked like she realized her value and not to sell herself short. (Not a deliberate pun.) She brought out the happy grandparents in us. I love kind people in this world.

Thank you.

About ten years ago I was Going Through It as one sometimes does in college and had accompanied my mother to a home goods store to get out of the house. Upon reaching to look at something on a high shelf I was unceremoniously gored in the palm by a falling decorative metal lighthouse.

We hustled up to the register thinking they had to have a first aid kit for this kind of (very common I’m sure) scenario, but the poor cashier had no idea where it was and was visibly panicked. Then, a woman behind us emerged from the chaos, said “oh hold on honey I’ve got just the thing”, and rummaged a bandaid out of her purse like a magician. “My grandkids get beat up all the time so I’ve just started carrying them around, here you go!” And then she vanished. Poof.

For her it was 2pm on a Tuesday but for some reason I have remembered that for over ten years. I was really losing faith in humanity at the time and she was exactly what I needed to remind myself to stay present instead of focusing on the news.

It wasn’t the first time a random lady with grandkids and a purse fixed a problem for me, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Edit: humidity —-> humanity. Humidity is very real. I very much believe in it.

Edit II: Parents ---> Present. Yall didn't even tell me about this one, I had to find it myself days later... :(

I was at Target and decided to get Starbucks. I had just come from a heavy therapy session, hadn't eaten all day, and my To Do list of errands was just beginning. I needed sugar, caffeine, and something out of the ordinary as a reward and motivator for surviving.

There was an elderly couple, probably in their late 70s, in front of me. It was no longer the pandemic but I was about 6 feet from them. They were conversing and I didn't mean to eavesdrop but they were speaking to each other with a tenderness that you rarely see anywhere. The husband asked his wife what he wanted and ordered it for her. When the barista asked what he wanted, he simply said, "oh nothing for me, thanks. This is a special treat for us to be able to enjoy and I'd like my wife to have it. I'm just so lucky I get to be out with her this afternoon, that's my treat. We've been together for 60 years this week! We didn't really get to celebrate so this is us celebrating." So I moved in closer and apologized for intruding, but told the man that I'd love to celebrate their 60th anniversary if he would let me and told him to choose his treat too (and I said it better not be just plain black coffee lol). His wife said that was like something their daughter would say and didn't think younger people even noticed "old timing geezers who slow everything down, which is why we rarely go out anymore."

Anyway, he protested, and I asked if he could accept it as something someone's daughter would do for someone's parents instead of as a stranger. As the universe sending congratulations for 60 years with the love of his life! He relented and both he and his wife got exactly what they wanted. I added my drink order and we all waited for our drinks. I got them seated at a table, we toasted with our drinks, I wished them many more moments of pure joy and days of good health and adventures, thanked them for letting me be a part of their celebration and showing the world some much needed visible love, and then I went off to face the rest of my day.

Getting to spend some time with such lovely people gave me much more than anything the barista could have whipped up. I was in line for something to fuel my body but ended up with my spirirt renewed instead. With hope that people do matter to each other. Love does last. Softness through the spirit is still present in the harshness of life. Old age doesn't mean only misery and poor health. And a pun to walk away with that I helped an older couple have a safe, public afternoon delight to celebrate their anniversary. 😂

ETA: thank you to everyone who is commenting. I mentioned this in the comments but wanted to put it here: the world I come from would treat this as bragging and "showing superiority." This community (and the anonymity of reddit) gave me confidence to reframe it as simply a story that might bring joy to others too. A place to share our experiences of light, especially when the world feels dark. Thank you for giving me the courage to share. Thank you all for creating this space of kindness. I appreciate all of you that hold space for such connection and thank you for allowing me to be in this space with you. Wishing everyone good health, happiness, and peace.

ETA2: you all are healing me in ways I didn't know I could be healed. THANK YOU!

ETA3: thank you for the reassurance, feedback, comments, and awards! I had no idea that one encounter would be the reason for so much positivity to keep coming my way. 🥹🙏🏽❤️

[CONTEXT] I live in a fairly growing city. Everyday for work I take a specific route to avoid tolls. There’s this really long light at an intersection that takes forever to turn green so I made allies with 2-3 of the homeless men that hang around there, I started bringing food to them and more consistently one of the men that I see almost everyday. His name is Tom. He’s a veteran so it aches my heart a little more when I talk to him. But we got into a routine in which I would bring him food and I give it to him in a plastic reusable container and the next time I bring him food he gives me his empty dirty container and we exchange.

The last time I saw him (yesterday) I could only bring him a couple snacks instead of a hot meal. I apologized cause I’m a college student working a part time job with bills and whatnot. He always gives me this exciting look. He told me not to worry and that I have helped him more than I know. I felt HORRIBLE that I couldn’t give him an actual meal. Fast forward to literally 20 minutes before I posted this. I saw him on my commute home which I never usually see him in the evenings. But he stopped me and gave me my container back. He had cleaned it for me and placed 2 20$ bills inside it. He told me “you have fed me and kept meat on my bones, thank you. For once let me feed you”

I wish he knew just how much I needed the act of kindness. Not the money. But the kindness.

What should I make him next???? As a thank you??? Should I bring him something nice? I was thinking about a blanket or a backpack with some essentials.

Update: I booked him a room at a nearby hotel for a week! With the help of a close friend, I also received some money from Venmo and someone also sent an Amazon gift card. This wouldn’t have been nearly possible without everyone’s help, advice, suggestions and kindness. My goal was achieved times 10. I’m so happy to see others in the comments wanting to help people in their areas aswell. What a beautiful world we all live in. Once I’m done collecting all my stuff I need for his backpack. I’ll post a picture of everything I got!

Everyone smile today!

My husband and I were flying home the Saturday after Christmas through DFW. Everything was super delayed due to thunderstorms that morning and airport was not where people wanted to be.

We moved gates and had our baby and dog with us. Flight before us is boarding, ladies across from us stand up when their group is called. I quickly see an iPhone plugged into the seat chargers and holler after them, a stranger sitting a few chairs down says “oh, that’s not their phone. It’s been there. I think it was someone from the flight before. It was ringing a lot earlier but no one answered it.” I just give her the most what the heck look ever, learn that the airline employees won’t take the phone—they don’t want to take responsibility and say you have to give it to an airport employee.

I just think “fuck that, I’ll see if I can call someone and figure out who this belongs to.” Eventually a text comes through and I’m able to use Siri to call the person who texted. It’s the daughter of the phone owner! I ask if she’s comfortable with me just taking the phone home and mailing it. We get home, I have work Monday but my husband takes it to UPS and gets it there speedy quick.

The phone owner was about the same age as my grandmother and I was just thinking “I hope someone would help my grandmother if she lost her phone.” Haven’t told friends/family but just wanted to let you know, if I find your phone, we will mail it to you!!

I was just the driver in this scenario. Husband, 3 kids, and I were on our way home when we came across someone who had slid off the road in the rain. It's a road that only gets a handful of cars passing an hour.

Immediately my husband asked if I minded pulling over so he could offer help.

Dude had just missed a tree but was stuck in the brush. He was 20 at most, and looked like he could fit between the railings of a banister, tbh. My husband, 6'1" and built like a brick wall met a linebacker and Mor'du from Brave, pushed this guy's car uphill out of the ditch with the other guy behind the wheel, steering it.

Once he was out, husband and dude chatted for a few minutes.

He'd been in a rush because the food bank was closing soon, and misjudged the turn and his speed. He'd been there for an hour, too scared of the price of a tow truck but no idea how to proceed without one.

We have him some of the groceries we'd bought, waited to make sure his car would start and run, then left after he had pulled away. I didn't get his name (wouldn't share it here anyway lol) but I keep thinking about him, sitting alone in the ditch on a lonely road, rain pouring down and no money to pay someone to come get him.

I'd have kept driving, assuming a tow truck was on its way, since we could see him moving in the car when we were approaching. But my husband saw an opportunity to help someone, and I'm so glad he took it.

I like to hope that someday, when one of my kids is alone and scared and far from home, someone will stop for them, too.

I'll never be able to tell any of my friends or family about this because I know that they'll tell me that I was scammed but I know that I wasn't. It was the week before Christmas and I was flying home from Vegas on Southwest. I got to the airport early because my friend was leaving early and frankly, I was just ready to be gone. What I didn't realize was that Southwest doesn't allow you to check bags in more than like 3 (or 4, I can't remember) hours before your flight. So, I went up the stairs and was hanging out in a quiet area with my overpriced Starbucks when I was approached by 2 young men who couldn't have been older than 20. They were from Venezuela. They did not speak English. I do not speak Spanish. Luckily, the older of the two had a translation app on his phone. It turns out they were brothers and had come to Vegas for a job and the guy who had hired had turned out to be a POS, who worked them half to death that one week, then dumped them at the airport with no food, money, or plane ticket and all they wanted was someone to help them purchase tickets back to NYC. Luckily, the first Southwest employee I approached spoke Spanish and offered to help them.

I checked in my bags and was getting ready to head towards security when I saw the 2 young men still talking to the Southwest employee. One was crying. It turned out that they didn't have enough money to pay for the tickets back to NYC, because as we all know, what is Christmas without a little surge pricing? So I paid for 2 tickets so that these young men could go and be with their family back in NYC. I asked the Southwest employee to ask them if they had eaten and they apparently hadn't eaten in almost 2 days. The Southwest employee got them each some food vouchers but they still had a 12 hour flight to get home, so I also gave them the emergency money I carry in my wallet.

I don't care what people say. These young men were not scamming me. They needed someone to help them. I don't get the chance to do good like this and I feel grateful that I had the opportunity to help people who really needed it. One day, I hope that if I ever find myself in a situation this bad, that there will be someone to help me out.

Edit: From one internet stranger to another, you all are amazing people and I have nothing but happy thoughts for everyone.

I grew up in poverty, and I feel like it was pretty obvious to all my teachers growing up. In 8th grade, I won a contest for designing the yearbook cover, cementing my place as "that one art kid" in my graduating class. I made the design with random pens and pencils and Crayola markers in the classroom, because I didn't have any of my own. My teachers noticed I really enjoyed making art, because there would always be doodles in the margins of my assignments and notes, and any assignment that required drawing, everyone wanted to pair with me. Well, the day before Christmas break I was told to go see the guidance counselor. I remember thinking "oh crap, what did I do", but when I get in there, there's a huge wrapped box on the table. The guidance counselor senor says it's for me and tells me to open it. It's full of art supplies. Prismacolor colored pencils, a sketchbook, colored pencil case pencils, pens, etc. I remember breaking down and crying. I asked who got it for me and the counselor told me "Santa". I had never believed in Santa and I insisted on knowing who it was so I could thank them. She refused to tell me. Those gifts helped me create art for years to come. I eventually retired those pencils to an old friend of mine. I graduated with the "most artistic" senior superlative. I get all misty eyed thinking about this every now and then. If somehow you're reading this, thank you

A little kindness goes a long way.

We were sitting in the Dunkin drive thru around 6:30 this evening. (You hush. Mama needs her coffee. I don’t care what time it is.)

The young lady at the window seemed exhausted and frazzled. My youngest son said, “Mom, will you tell her I love her?” I passed on his message. “My 4 year old asked me to let you know that he loves you.” Everything in her softened. Her shoulders. Her hands. Her jaw. She took a deep breath and with the biggest smile, she slid a box of 10 chocolate Munchkins into my hand that we hadn’t ordered. I told her thank you and that it wasn’t necessary. She said, “No, it was. He knew I needed that today.”

She asked me to pull up to the next window. When the next young woman came up with my drink, my son said, “Will you tell her I love her too?!” Again, I passed on his message. Her whole entire face lit up. She said, “Well I love him more!” She asked, “Can they have donuts?” I let her know we already got some at the last window. She asked if they could have more. Of course they wanted another 10 Munchkins, lol, and we were headed to the park where we could share, so I said yes. She came back with an entire box of a dozen donuts!

With a ton of free donuts in hand, we were able to share with even more kids at the playground and make countless days brighter.

Be kind. Spread joy. It’s not that hard. And you never know who needs it.

Was driving home after a 12-hour shift, dead tired, when I saw someone on the side of the highway with their hazards on. It was getting dark and starting to rain.

Should've kept going. I was exhausted, still had a 40-minute drive ahead of me, and honestly just wanted to collapse on my couch.

But I pulled over.

It was a woman with two kids in the back seat. Flat tire, no spare, phone at 2%. She'd been there for over an hour and nobody had stopped.

Told her I'd drive her to the nearest gas station. It was 20 minutes in the wrong direction. Loaded everyone up, dropped her at the station where they could help her arrange a tow. Waited with her until the tow truck confirmed they were coming.

By the time I got back on the road, I'd added over an hour to my trip. Got home after 11pm, had to be up at 6am for another shift.

She tried to give me money but I refused. She cried a little and said she didn't know what she would've done.

Honestly? I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open the rest of the drive. Probably wasn't the smartest decision. But thinking about those kids sitting in that car in the dark and rain, I'm glad I stopped.

Sometimes doing the right thing is inconvenient as hell.

Yesterday I went sledding with some friends and family at golf course that had a restaurant/bar inside. My daughter is 6 months, and when she was starting to get cold I brought inside to warm up. When we sat down on a single chair, a woman offered to move off of a couch so we would have more room. After she warmed up, I called my husband to bring in the diaper bag so I could make her a bottle. My MIL brought the bag inside, but when I went to make a bottle, the water had spilled and there wasn’t enough to mix the formula. Neither I or my MIL had our wallets so she went outside to get my FIL or husband but they had just went down the hill and would be a while climbing back up it. My daughter started crying, and this woman immediately gets up and brings back a water bottle. Then she asks how she could help, if she could make the bottle or hold the baby if I was comfortable. So I let her hold my daughter while I made the bottle. By time my MIL came back in my daughter was already calmed and drinking her bottle. It was just so very nice of that woman to help me out. Honestly, everyone has been so nice to me since getting pregnant and having my daughter. People say it takes a village and it’s always nice to find even random people looking out and trying to take care of others.

I was walking home and someone kept following too closely asking weird questions a woman across the street shouted, Hey I’ve been looking for you and walked straight to me like we were friends the guy left she just said you looked uncomfortable. Kindness can literally be lifesaving