This is a sponsored post as part of the Let your Natural Beauty Shine Through with Zeno & Her Campus program.
All week, I’ve been brainstorming a random act of kindness to perform. I thought of buying the person behind me in line at Starbucks their drink, or surprising my friends with study kits in the library. I read about Nikki baking for her friends and Anne doing her sorority sister’s laundry and loved their ideas, but nothing seemed quite right.
Then yesterday, en route to a group dinner for the Student Leadership Council of the Tour Guide group I’m in charge of, I walked right past an old man struggling to make his way down the sidewalk.
“Do you know where Whole Foods is?” he asked me in a soft, yet determined voice. “Sure sir, it’s just down this street about three blocks,” I replied. He looked at me with blank eyes. “Oh… ok… okay,” he replied, and continued to stumble reluctantly in that direction.
As I watched him take a few steps forward, I heard myself saying “Do you need help getting there?”
He turned slowly and smiled at me. “That would be wonderful.”
We made our way down Massachusetts Avenue, slowly but surely. He told me about how he was a Boston native, how he’d lived in the city all his life. He’d be a solider in Vietnam, and had a lovely wife whom had passed away. Their children lived far away, and he was all by himself. Though reluctant to admit it, he was rapidly losing his sight, and barely had any vision left at all.
I told him a bit about myself – that I was from Los Angeles, about to graduate at Northeastern University, and starting a full time job in June. “That’s so great,” he kept saying to me, over and over.
I walked him to Whole Foods and helped him through the automatic doors. I thought about leaving there, but knew I had a few extra minutes to spare.
“So what’s on your list?”
I helped him pick out apples, fresh deli meat, some bread, milk and his favorite cookies before making our way to the cash register. He paid and we walked out of the store. He looked at me and smiled.
“Thank you so much young lady. You are so beautiful.”
After we parted ways, I made my way to dinner with a grin on my face. It wasn’t just that he had called me beautiful, it’s that I knew what I’d done was a beautiful thing. This poor old man, struggling desperately to remain independent, needed any help he could get that afternoon, and I was more than happy to be that help.
Usually, I’m a talker. I have a large social circle and I tell my friends everything. But when I got to dinner, I kept what I’d done to myself. It felt more special that way, more genuine, not bragging to my friends about the help I’d given.
Thinking back to those 25 minutes out of my day yesterday makes me smile to myself. There’s nothing more satisfying than knowing you’ve helped somebody in need – nothing else gives you that feeling. All day yesterday, I felt as if I was glowing.
My only regret from yesterday? I never asked the man’s name.