Dear Stranger,
Thank you.
I don't know if you remember me, but I definitely remember you. I was the girl sitting on a ledge outside of the student center crying with my head in my hands. I probably looked a mess, with my makeup smeared and my hair thrown back so it wouldn't get stuck to my face. You had no way to know this, but when you came up to me, I was fighting a panic attack that has started in the middle of the building, right in front of all my friends are peers. I rushed outside with my head tucked low and found a spot to cry and try to calm down. My fiancé left me there, sitting there on the ledge to go find me some food, knowing that it was either eat now or go without until dinner. It must have looked to you like he had abandoned me there. You came up to me and said that you were didn’t know me but that you were worried about me and that you were there for me if I needed a hug. You had to have been nervous, but you came up to me anyway.
You have absolutely no idea what such a simple thing means to me.
You had no reason to do what you did. You did not have to step up and say anything. I would have been fine. But you didn’t know that.
You stepped up. You said something.
At the time I was confused. I got defensive, assuming you were going to confront me and give me advice or try and sit with me when all I wanted in the entire world was to be alone. I’m sorry about that. You didn’t judge me, and I should not have judged you.
You took time out of your day to worry about a stranger. You reminded me of who I have forgotten to be.
I could have been suicidal. I could have been facing something much worse in my life than anxiety. You had no way of knowing, and the fact that it didn’t matter to you says everything.
I don’t see people when I walk by. I keep my eyes at my feet and I pretend the world around me does not exist and I let it all melt into a faded world that moves a blur.
But you left your table, and your food, and your laptop and you checked on me, a complete stranger.
Such an act of kindness is something this world needs. In a world of darkness and hate and xenophobia and fear, you worried about a stranger. You took time out of your day to make sure that I knew that someone in this world cared about me and was worried about me.
Thank you.
Thank you for being the light this world needs.
Thank you for reminding me to stop and to worry about the strangers around me.
Thank you for being the woman I need to be.
I wish I had gotten your name. I wish I had been nicer to you.
One day, when I see someone as hurt and broken as I must have looked to you, I will pay forward your act of kindness. I hope that they then do the same and that we all can take one simple step to care about each other just a little more, even though we are all strangers.
Thank you.
