Giving Cards For Kindness

I took my teenage son on a tour of several colleges out of state. On a day when we had two tours scheduled, our rental car got a flat, so we had to have it towed and get another car. We missed one tour but made it to the second one, after a three-hour drive. Tired, grumpy, and discombobulated, I found the parking lot and managed to use the self-pay to pay for our parking before walking over to the visitor center.

Only when I went to buy my son a T-shirt did I realize that my credit card was missing. I had left it in the parking machine. Convinced that it would be stolen and used to buy thousands of dollars of stuff, I ran back to where we had parked. What did I find but another teenager there for the same tour, on her phone. She had found my card, Googled my name, found my office phone number, and was calling me to tell me she found my card. She was delighted that she got to give it back, and I was delighted that I didn’t have to cancel the card. I was even more delighted when I checked my voicemail later to find such an earnest and polite message telling me she that had found my card and would do her best to get it back to me.

Teenagers are the hope for the future, and I’m not being sarcastic. I hope she gets accepted.