My DMV Story

“Ahh DMV, always a fun place to go”, I say to myself sarcastically as I enter the DMV to get my new driving license. I felt a bit of relief after looking at the short line since I had just got off my 12-hour night shift. I wait in line for my turn and go up to this nice lady. I told her I am here for a new driving license and she asks me for the required documents. I give her the required documents and she tells me “You need to pay $30, you can go and pay at the Giant Eagle right there”, she says pointing at Giant Eagle across the road and hands me a slip. “Can I leave my documents here while I go pay?”, I ask, and she says yes.

I go to Giant Eagle, go to customer service and say to a guy working there “Hi, I want to do a money order for DMV” and I hand him the slip the lady at DMV gave me. “Can I get your name?” he asks, I give him my name and other details he needed. “Your total will be $31.45”, I take out my small wallet/purse I used to carry to work and take out my credit card. As I was about to insert my card to pay, the guy says, “Oh sorry, we only take debit, cash, and check”. “I took out my debit card just before work and put it back into my other purse, but, thanks to mom I always carry cash with me”, I say to myself as I take out the cash I have and start counting…10, 15, 16, 17, 18. I start panicking. I look at my purse and I just have a credit card, and my driving license. I hate taking that big purse with me because it doesn’t fit in my pocket, so I like to carry the small one to work, and I had just taken out my debit card, what a lucky day. I look at the guy and say, “I just have $18 cash and credit card”, knowing full well that he couldn’t do anything, but I needed someone to give me ideas because my brain was busy panicking and I needed ideas. He pointed to an ATM machine and said, “We have an ATM machine”. I didn’t have my card for the ATM, but I stepped away saying I will be back and tried to think of ideas.

I took a deep breath and thought, what do I have and how can I make to use. I have credit card and I am at a department store. So, I can buy someone their items using my credit card and ask them for cash for the same amount. I look around and see no customers, so I start looking for customers in the aisles. I see a 40–50-year-old man, I look at his face and he looked scary, especially when I was already panicking so I go look for someone else. I see a mother and a daughter who was around 12-13 years old. I go up to them and half-panicked I say “Hi, excuse me”, they turn around. In an effort to not look like someone who was there just to ask for some money for free, I took out my credit card and those $18 dollars as I say “I was at the DMV for a new ID and they asked me to come here for pay for it. But apparently, they do not take credit cards and I do not have enough cash. I was wondering if I could buy some of these items for you with my credit card in exchange for cash…if you have cash” I say pointing to the items in their cart. At this point, I have tears starting to fill my eyes, but I am not sure why I was about to cry. The mother smiles and takes out her purse and asks, “How much do you need?” “Umm, I have $18, but I need to pay $31.45, so I think I need $10”, I say, not realizing I had said the wrong amount. She smiles and gives me some cash, I take it, but I don’t count it. I look at the half-filled cart and ask her what she would like me to buy for her, she smiles and says “Oh, it’s fine, you don’t have to”, I was startled, and my tears were so close to falling down my cheeks because I was so touched by her kindness. I say, “Please, let me buy something” “No, really, it’s okay”. The tears now rolled down my cheeks and I have no control over my tears, I am crying, and I can’t stop it. I also can’t just stand there and cry in front of them, so, with tears filled in my eyes, through which I can barely see I say “Please, let me”. She now takes something out of her cart and gives it to me. “I will be right back”, I say as I wipe tears off my face and run to a cashier and give the cashier the item. “Your total is $6”, I pay for it as I realize that she gave me much more cash than what that item cost me. I ask for the receipt and take the item and receipt and go back to the aisle I last saw them, but I don’t see them there.

I am now again about to cry because I can’t find them. I go look at the other aisles and see them at one of them. I go up to them and hand the mother the item with the receipt and say “Thank you so much”, she smiles as she puts the item with the receipt back in the cart. That kind smile made me cry again, and I say thank you multiple times as I walk away and the daughter smiles and waves as I walk away. I go back to the guy at customer service as I wipe my tears off again and say “I am back”. As I am counting the money, it hit me that I had $18 and I asked the kind lady for $10 which means I only have $28. I started panicking again thinking that I will have to go back to her and ask her again for the money. But, she had given me $15, more than what I had asked for. I paid the amount in a hurry and I ran back to the DMV. I go back to the lady who I left my documents with and she asks smiling “Where were you? I thought you got lost” “Sorry, I just had some trouble paying the money” “Alright you are all set here, you will be called again to take a picture over there” she says as she points to an old lady on the other side of the room. I go sit down and wait for my turn. As I sit down, I felt some kind of relief, as if I had just ran to safety after facing a murderer. After a while the old lady calls my name, I stand for a picture, she takes my picture, and she stares at my picture for a while before showing me the picture and asking “Honey, do you want to take another picture?” I have just come from a 12-hour night shift, I came to the DMV an hour ago, I have cried so many times and I don’t even know why I cried, I think that is the best shot I am going to get today “No, thank you, that picture is fine” I say with a smile.

I had so much tears filled in my eyes and was panicking that at no point did I properly see the mother and the daughter's face. But time and again I think about them and I hope they are doing well and are happy. I am an immigrant, and it hadn’t been too long since I moved to the US, I will never forget the kindness. I will also never forget the time I told this story to an American friend who is also a POC and after the story, they said, “I bet they weren’t white”, and I felt an emotion, I can’t tell if that was anger or some other emotion or if was just a moment I realized that how much a whole community of people are misjudged just because of a few people. The mother and daughter were white, and they were very kind, and I have brown skin and have an accent and she did not judge me on that, nor did she discriminate on that. In fact, if it was my own mother in her place and if someone like me came up to her and requested the same thing I did, I doubt my mom would have done what that lady did. Even though I don’t know her, I doubt I will ever recognize her face, but I am forever grateful.