Faith in Humanity

I constantly hear people say that there are no good people left in the world and quite frankly I use to think the same thing. I would get so stuck on all the bad things happening in my life and in the world that I couldn’t see all the good that was happening too. Or if I did see the good, I was still convinced there was more bad than good. I needed to switch my dark lenses for those notorious rose colored glasses. I needed to see that good deeds can be seen all around us, we just have to keep our eyes open.

So, here is a short story of a good deed someone provided to me; I hope it inspires you, as it did me, to look for the good in the world:

I spent some time studying overseas and had a friend come to visit. I had known the area enough to get me to and from class and to my favorite street food and markets but that was about it. When she arrived we had some trouble finding the hostel she would be staying in. As it began, we had walked about a mile and a half down the street from my accommodation to what we believed to be her hostel. Upon approaching, we noticed the name was a bit different but couldn’t really tell because neither of us could read the language. So we went inside to see, but the owner apologized and said we were not in the right place. We thanked her and went on our way. We walked around the corner hoping we were in the right area and just had the wrong building. We approached a couple more buildings with no luck. We were lost and confused. Discouraged, we stopped walking and talked about what we would do next, when we heard a soft voice from a passing car calling for us. We looked over and it was the owner of the hostel. She looked concerned and told us that the place we were looking for was a ways down the road. We thanked her and started to head in the right direction. She called for us again, explaining it was too far to walk and that she would be happy to give us a ride. Shocked, I thanked her but declined her offer. I felt wrong accepting knowing we were giving our business to someone else. She seemed saddened and offered again, pleading that it was much too far for us to walk. She said she understood the situation and wanted to help. After a bit of discussing, we accepted her offer and she took us to the correct hostel my friend had booked. She was so kind. We spoke a lot on the way over, she gave us some suggestions of places to go and told us about her and her family. Once we arrived, we thanked her endlessly and offered her payment. She refused to accept any money and reiterated that she just wanted to help. We gave her a hug, thanked her again, and went on our way.

Reflecting on what had just happened, I felt like the Grinch -my heart growing three sizes. I couldn’t believe this woman would be so selfless as to track us down to take us to a different accommodation, solely because she wanted to help. She helped me regain my faith in humanity and start to transition those glasses to rose.

Since that day, I have made it a point for myself to make sure to look through the bad to see all the amazing people doing amazing things for each other; because there is truly, so much good in the world.