Side note: Another Daily prompt I saw on WordPress. I can’t find the draft of this original prompt, but I still wanted to post it and try to keep up with my 30 days of posts. I should have labeled which day was which. What’s a Moment When a Stranger Completely Restored Your Faith in People?
There are so many moments I could talk about that renewed my faith in people, because I am a fortunate person. I won’t sit here and pretend otherwise. Throughout my life, people have always helped me, been there for me, listened, and offered sage wisdom. I want to talk about a few of those times.
The first happened during my first year of graduate school. I was in my twenties. I was dumb, in the way we all are in our twenties. I was in love with a man I thought I’d marry. We had just broken up. He wanted to date other people, and I told him I understood, and then I threw myself into school. I studied. I worked. Then, after a final exam, on a day when I was already emotionally drained, I saw him kiss another woman.
My brain couldn’t process it. I thought I’d failed the exam. I thought I was wasting my time and my money, that maybe everyone who ever doubted me was right. I sat on the green line train and cried, silently, trying not to let anyone see.
A young man came up to me He must have been younger than I was; he looked barely twenty-five Heck, he looked like he was in his early 20s I guess witnessing a grown woman cry on the subway made him pause He asked if I was okay I told him I was going through a lot And without knowing anything about what had happened to me the exam seeing my ex, he spoke life into me He told me that no matter what I was going through, it would be okay, and that someone out there would show up for me and be there for me I don’t remember every word. Still, I remember what it did It poured kindness back into a place that had gone empty.
Then he said something I still think about. He said, “You passed that test.” I hadn’t told him about the exam, and he said, “That man’s not your man. Everything’s gonna work out.” My train came; I thought he’d get on with me. Still, he told me to have a good life and stayed on the platform. When I looked back through the window, he was gone. I went back to that train around that same time for days afterward, hoping to find him, just to say thank you, just to buy him a cup of coffee. I never saw him again. I don’t know his name. Still, I carry him with me, and I thank him in my spirit to this day. I did pass that class. That relationship ended, and it turned out to be the freeing thing he told me it would be.
Another time, I went whitewater rafting with friends. I was thrown from the raft into the water. I swam to a rock to wait, just as I’d been told to do if that ever happened A group of strangers, people who didn’t know me at all, pulled me into their raft and carried me back to my own group I was so grateful someone was willing to help a person they had never met If they hadn’t stopped for me, I don’t know how long I would have been stranded on those rocks Probably not long, we were with a tour group, and they had a raft behind us on purpose to save anyone who became hurt, injured, or stranded.
The last is something that has happened to me more than once: car accidents I’ve been in accidents that, by all rights, should have been much worse than they were Each time, whether it was an EMT, a police officer, or a bystander who stopped, someone has told me I was okay before I even knew to believe it myself One told me I needed to understand how fortunate I was, that she had seen people walk away from far less My cousin once saw the wreckage of one of my accidents and broke down crying, because she couldn’t understand how I had walked away from it Another time I was hit by a car going nearly ninety miles an hour. I had the green light and they ran the red light. You can only imagine the boom, it was epic like God sending a bolt of lighting to earth. I don’t remember getting out of the car, but i got out of the car and stood on the side of the street until EMTs showed up. People kept asking me how I did it , because the door was sealed shut. I didn’t have an answer I still don’t.
I think about all of this, especially the man on the green line. He poured life into me on a day I thought I had hit rock bottom. He did it without asking for anything back. I will never see him again. I pray he is well, successful, and loved. I hope, somehow, he knows that I thank him from the bottom of my heart. These moments remind me that humanity is still capable of good, and I hold onto them with gratitude.
Would you like to fund my next whitewater rafting trip, or maybe my return to grad school? –> Ko-fi.com/chemichelletales
Also I need to do better editing. Sorry for the typos.
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