Let me preface this story by saying...I am NOT a morning person. At ALL. I wake up around 7a weekday mornings to get ready for work...leave the house by 7:40 to make it here on time...and even after the long commute and at least one Diet Coke, I don't feel truly peppy until, like, 10:00 in the morning. Yeah, lol...a full hour after my show starts.
So what happened this morning - what I did - isn't all that surprising...I stopped at Safeway to grab something to have for lunch today...as I was using the self-checkout register, it asked me if I wanted cash back. I thought to myself, yes, I AM low on cash. So I requested $20. I paid for my transaction, waited for the receipt...and walked away. WITHOUT grabbing my cash.
I hadn't had enough caffeine yet - and wasn't completely "with it" yet. So no real surprise that I forgot to get my money.
What happened next was the really surprising thing to me...I was almost out the door with my salad, and was thinking about the day ahead and what was on my agenda...completely oblivious to forgetting the $20, when I heard someone yelling, "Ma'am! Ma'am!"...I turned around to see a Safeway employee running towards me...with a 20-dollar bill in her hand. MY 20 dollars.
I honestly couldn't believe it. She probably could have slid that bill in her jeans without anyone noticing. She could have kept my money for herself. But she didn't. She did the right thing...the honest thing.
And it really made me think. Are we so jaded by the current state of our world that we EXPECT dishonesty and a lack of morals and values and decency? I guess that I AM to an extent. Because that woman's decency came as a surprise to me.
And I'm just so glad that what happened did. Her one small act basically just kinda restored my faith in humanity today.
And it served as a reminder to simply: be kind.
Do the right thing. Do a NICE thing.
You never know how much impact it can have on a complete stranger's day!