When I am traveling I stick to a routine, every time. I drop off my luggage at the ticket counter, go through airport security, walk to my gate, get a Starbucks if the airport I am at has one and if not I get a water and chips instead. I sit at my gate scrolling through social media until they are about to pre-board.I quickly go to the bathroom before I line up to board the aircraft as all flight attendance say. With this routine I always wear black (If you personally know me then this isn't a shocker), I always keep to myself never bothering anyone and somehow I always have a RBF.( Resting B**ch Face) With all three of these things put together I am the least approachable gal at the airport. My so called airport routine went up in shambles when I blurted out the words " Is this yours?"
I picked up a Purdue pillow and handed it to the girl who simply said yes in a low shy voice. I handed it to her and started to walk away when I noticed that she had that terrified look on her face. I knew she was lost so I simply asked if she need help finding her gate. You could see the relief on her face when I asked and she handed me her ticket. I noticed that her gate was right beside mine so I offered to walk with her to our gates. As we were walking to our gates we started small talking and introducing ourselves and we instantly connected.As we approached our gates, I told her I would sit with her until it was time for her to board for her flight to Atlanta in about an 45 minutes as I had time since my flight to Denver did not leave for another hour and a half since it got delayed. We exchanged laughs, stories, and Snapchat usernames. We both promised each other that the next time we are both in the same state that we met in we would get together and meet again.
As I was now sitting there alone waiting to board, I became to realize and think about what just happened in the past hour. How such a small act of kindness can lead to a friendship I never would have thought I would have. This beautiful genuine girl, who is originally from Africa but now only lives nine hours away, has become a friend of mine just by simply asking if she needed help. In that hour I realized that you can find so much joy in other people's presence in your life and in serving others. I learned that when you have that feeling to help someone, don't fight it. Just do it because it could make their day and yours too.
No matter how many plans we make or steps we follow, we never really know how our day is going to end up. We prefer to know, of course, whatever curve balls are coming our way. It's the accidents that always turn out to be the most interesting parts of our days. The people we never expected to show up. The turn of events we would have never chosen for ourselves. All of the sudden, you find yourself somewhere you would have never expected to be and it's nice or it takes some getting used to. Still, you know you'll find yourself appreciated somewhere down the line. So you go to sleep each night thinking about tomorrow, going over your plans, making your lists, and hoping that, whatever accidents that come your way, will be happy ones. But sometimes it just happens in a blink of an eye you put people in your life by small acts of kindness that was never in your plans or in those lists you make everyday. Try a random act of kindness out this week, because you never know what might come out of it.
