Random Acts of Kindness

There's a section in the Toronto Star online where people share their stories of how people have shown them random acts of kindness. I really enjoy it and it just motivated me to make a record of the random acts of kindness that I've been blessed to receive. Here's a collection of the ones that I remember so far.

Flat Tire

Driving up Willingdon in Burnaby, a car pulls up beside me and yells through my window that my tire's flat. I pull into the nearest gas station and begin trying to put air into my tire. I hadn't gotten far in figuring out how to put air in, when the guy from the station comes out and offers to help. He then proceeded to not only fill up the flat tire, but also checked all the other tires as well. I not only experienced one, but two acts of kindness in one day!

No Wallet

During the fall right after my graduation, I worked at a Physio clinic that was quite a distance from my home. Since the clinic was a 45 min drive from my house and there wasn't a lot of space inside the clinic to eat, I often went out for lunch during my break. One day,, when it came time to pay after eating lunch at the chinese restaurant across the street (On Hastings and Slocan) I realised that I didn't have my wallet with me. Starting to panic, I asked to go check in my car, thinking that perhaps it fell out of my bag there. After searching, I had to return to the restaurant empty handed. I then borrwed their phone to call home to ask if my wallet was there, but no one answered. The manager and waitresses were extremely kind and gracious, telling me to pay them back whenever I could and wished me the best in finding my wallet. I was so embarassed. I thanked them profusely and returned the next day to pay them back. btw - my wallet was safe and sound at home. my dad was nice enough drop the wallet off in the afternoon for me so that I'd have my licence while driving home.

Car Insurance

Again, driving in the car heading to UBC with my mom, a driver pulls up beside me with the window rolled down. I open my back window and he points out that my car insurance had expired already. Later on, after parking, I check the sticker and sure enough the insurance had expired a month before. Normally, the insurance company would send a reminder; however, I suppose since we recently moved the notice may have gotten lost in the mail. How the stranger saw my sticker from his truck in the dark with rain is besides me, but I'm thankful that he did, otherwise who knows how long I would've driven the car without knowing I had no car insurance?

Moving In

At the start of my studies in Australia, due to short notice from the University, I had class at 9am, while my plane arrived at 6am. By the time I got through customs and arrived at my residence, it was laready 8:15am. After finishing some paper work (and they even skipped some parts) it was 8:30. The 2 people in the office helped me carry all my luggage up to my flat. Carol, the one office lady even gave me a ride to class since I was going to be late and dropped me off right outside my building and pointed me in the right direction. It was so nice to get a warm welcome in a new country, expecially being jetlagged after a long plane ride.

On moving to my permanent suite, another student in residence saw me struggling to carry my luggage and offered to take the heaviest suitcase I was carrying up to my suite for me. Ah, what a gentleman! They do exist =)

Food

As a student who isn't a particularly good cook, I always appreciate a free meal. I'm thankful for the invitation to join a family and a few other people for their Chinese New Year's dinner, espeically since I had only met this "auntie" briefly the week before and was persistent enough to call a few times to reach me since apparently I was never home (due to school). I personally would've probably given up after a couple tries. I have to say I felt very welcomed and cared for and even had my first taste of Durian for dessert after a nice hot pot dinner.. which they call "steam boat" here in Australia.

More about food

Due to my program, I had to start school a few weeks earlier than most of the other students. After 3 weeks of living in an empty flat by myself with the bare minimum in household goods, I was very happy to get some company when my 5 flat-mates moved in. I have some great flat-mates, though 2 I don't see much at all... and they have good friends, one in particular.. We received a box of mangoes and veggies from one of my flat-mate's friends who works at a farm. This isn't just a normal box, it was the size of a laundry basket. For those who know me, mangoes are one of my favourite fruits and there were about 30 large sized mangoes in that box. Yum! Considering the day before I had seen some mangoes on sale at the farmer's market for $1.50 but was too cheap to buy one, this package was gold. =)