A Story of Kindness

Last Thursday night, as I was driving home from school on Kirkman Rd. near Universal Studios, a person driving a late-model Cadillac almost cut me off as she was trying to get on the right lane.  I sped up a little bit so that this person could go behind me, and also avoid hitting my car.  While at the light I realized that it's a woman driving, accompanied by one or two other women inside the car.  She was driving with the lights off and I debated whether I should be nice and let her know this or not.  I decided to be nice.

I opened my door (my window goes down, but it's hard to go up so I never put it down--that's ghetto, I know), and wave with my hands and point at her lights while yelling "your lights are off!"  She appeared to be having a hard time understanding me so I started making hand gestures that implied flashing lights.  My charade skills paid off that night because she realized what I was trying to say and immediately turned on her lights.

Fast-foward to Sunday.

I get to work this morning a few minutes before 11:30 a.m. One of the employees was asking me if I could help a group of ladies make a phone call.  She asked me to speak to them in Spanish because they're Brazilian and could understand Spanish better than they could English; they spoke very little English, and very little Spanish, in fact.

We go to the counter so that she can use the phone.  She lays down her key set on the counter and I noticed that one her keys was for a Cadillac.  Then I look at her face and her face looked familiar to me, but at this point I wasn't sure if it was them or not.  I walk away from the counter and take a glance out to the parking lot and noticed the same late-model Cadillac in the car, so at this point I feel bold enough to mention something.

I decided to start the conversation in Spanish with: "are you guys staying in Orlando?"  She said they were, so I said, "you guys look like a group of ladies I saw in Orlando the other night driving with their lights off.  Was that you guys?"  They're like, "no, that wasn't us."  I still wasn't 100% sure it was them but continued by saying, "oh, I'm sorry. I saw a group of ladies driving in Orlando the other night with their lights off so I opened my door and told them to turn on their lights, and thought it was you."  As I said that I started doing the same hand gestures I did that night their eyes got wide open and they started laughing.  Still in somewhat of disbelief she asked me if her lights were completely turned off.  "They were," I told her.

I had a good feeling it was them, but it was so weird thinking that the same people I had encountered that night would be at my place of work a few days later needing assistance from me.  Kind of a far stretch, in my opinion, but it did happen.

A reminder of kindness.

The whole situation reminded me that being nice to people is always necessary.  If you're rude to someone, you never know if or when you're going to see that person again.

It also reminded me of one time when a co-worker and I had an encounter at a traffic light in Titusville on our way in to work.  The man portrays himself at work as being a kind, soft-spoken person, but showed me a completely different side of him on the road because he didn't realize I was one of his coworkers.  I sent him an email that day as soon as I got to my office to let him know that I was the person he was rude to on the road.  He showed me his true colors.  Sadly, he didn't even apologize.

I'm not always nice to people, but I try to be as much as I can.  Be kind to people!  Again, you never know if you're ever going to see them again.  I sure hope that I left a lasting impression on the Brazilian ladies for telling them to turn on the lights, and then assisting her again a few days later at my job.  That makes me feel good.