I’m at work. Our office is right across the street from a national chain drugstore. We often run over there for snacks. Usually, one person goes with a list and everyone else reimburses them when they come back.

A couple of days ago, the guy I was in love with dumped me on my birthday, so I am in a horrible mood. I told a couple of female coworkers who asked why I was so quiet. One of my male coworkers was walking by at that moment. He mostly keeps to himself at work, as our department is majority female.

About two hours later, I see him going from desk to desk. He stops at mine.

Coworker: “Hey, I’m doing the snack run today. Want anything?”

Me: “Um… something with caffeine in it. A soda or coffee would work.”

Coworker: “Gotcha.”

He leaves and returns about twenty minutes later with everyone’s food and drinks. He hands me a bottled flavored coffee from an internationally known chain.

Me: “Thanks! This is great. How much do I owe you?”

Coworker: “Oh, don’t worry about it.”

Me: “No, no. These are usually about $4, right?”

I pull out my wallet.

Coworker: “Put that away. It’s on me. Breakups suck.”

It was a small gesture, but it helped my mood a lot that day.

When I worked at a nearby restaurant, it would attract quite the crowd. The food was amazing and we had a band that played almost every night. It was also right next to a really nice country club and would attract a lot of their residents.

One night, we were absolutely slammed. I had a total of probably twelve tables at once and it was just a mess. Everyone was pretty understanding and could see we were understaffed, except for this party of four I had. They were rich, rude, and just downright degrading.

I was doing the best I could, considering how busy we were, and the one woman was just not having it. She absolutely flipped out on me.

Woman: “You suck at your job! You’re not cut out to be a server. You should be fired, and you should be ashamed of how horrible your performance is! You’re the worst server ever!”

She just kept going on and on. I don’t usually let people get to me, especially this entitled jerk, but it happened; I broke down and started crying from the stress of how busy it was and her degrading me.

I took five, went to the bathroom, composed myself, and went back out to finish waiting on them.

Their attitude had completely changed; everyone at the table apologized to me profusely, even the woman who screamed at me. Apparently, another table nearby (who I wasn’t even waiting on) heard what the lady was saying and went up to the table and ripped them a new one, told them it was disgusting the way she was speaking to me, and basically called the table out on being horrible people.

And after all that, as I was talking to them, the guy from the other table came up to me (in front of the rude table) and said, “No one should ever be treated like that.” He gave me a hug and handed me 100$. I tried to refuse to take it, but the guy insisted on it and wouldn’t take it back.

It almost brought me to tears again. It was a very emotional shift.

I have been a librarian for over thirty years. We are a relatively big library in our town, and one of the more conveniently located libraries — right across from a middle school, by a major store, and near a dog park. But when the health crisis hit, we went from being in person to being only pick up in the car. Our state considered us essential. People for the most part were understanding about it, though we did have some interesting people. The absolute best patron, though, was one who remembered our names.

She would drive up, and when we came out, she would always have a smile and try and make conversation. This girl would constantly check out ten to twenty books every week and return them promptly every Monday. The odd thing was that the books were all over the place; some days it would be mysteries and sometimes it would be classics or nonfiction.

When we finally opened back up, she was there that Monday afternoon with a big plate of cookies and donuts from the local bakery with a card letting us know how much she appreciated us, especially since she knew that we had a lot of work to get out all her books. I finally asked her if she was reading all those books, because honestly, we were always curious.

Customer: *Laughing* “I read some of them, but I didn’t want the library to go under during this, so I figured if I could get as many books as I could checked out, they would see that this was a necessary thing.”

I admit my eyes were a little teary. And now, nearly six months after we have fully opened, she still checks out that many every week.

I started a new job as a banker about a month ago. Both my manager and the other banker, who is training me, end up out on unexpected medical leave for unrelated reasons within ten days of each other. I then get slammed with a bunch of stuff that I’ve not yet been trained on.

Thankfully, the bank I work for has a support line that branch staff can call for help. I call it multiple times. I get the same representative every time. After the fifth call, which requires a long explanation…

Representative: “…but it depends on your branch, really. I’d ask your manager to see how she wants it processed. You’ve called quite a bit today. Is your manager out?”

Me: “Yep.”

Representative: “Ah. Maybe you can hold the paperwork until she gets back.”

Me: “She’s on medical, so we’re not really sure when that will be.”

Representative: “Do you have a second banker to ask?”

Me: “She’s on medical, too.”

Representative: “So, there are no other bankers at all?”

Me: “Correct. Just me and our tellers.”

Representative: “Hmm. How long have you been a banker?”

Me: “About a month.”

Representative: “Oh, honey. Talk about getting thrown in the deep end. Please call us any time!”

Me: “That’s sweet, but I’ve already bothered y’all enough today!”

Representative: “Now, I mean it. You call us as much as you need to! What branch are you at?”

After that, every time I called, every representative greeted me with a cheerful, “Hello, [My Name] from [Branch]!” They even walked me through several tricky processes, step by step! They were lifesavers during the two weeks when I was working by myself. I don’t work there anymore, but I’ll never forget how kind those representatives were. If you’re reading this, thanks, ladies!

I went through some serious mental health struggles all throughout my high school years. This was further exacerbated in college because I decided to go out of state and basically lost my entire support system.

In my freshman year, I was all but forced to withdraw from my gen-ed chemistry class because, between my mental health and my natural disinterest in the subject, I didn’t have any motivation to turn in any homework or lab reports. My professor for that class was also the ONLY one to notice my struggles and to try and reach out to me, but I wasn’t really receptive to getting help at that point.

A year later, I started digging myself out of my hole, so I decided to retake the class with the same professor. On this particular day, we had an exam. I finished a bit early, handed my test to my professor, and left the room like usual for her exams. Unbeknownst to me, she actually followed me out into the hall.

Professor: “[My Name]?”

Me: “Uh, yes?”

Professor: “I just wanted to say great job on your confidence this semester. You’ve come a long way.”

Me: *Genuinely shocked* “Oh, thank you. I’m… I’m really trying.”

Even though it was just a small comment, it really hit me hard after everything. I cried the whole way back to my dorm.