(This happened a few years ago when my friend was in 7th grade. This teacher would make you stand up if you slept on his class, which my friend was doing.)
Teacher:”[Friend], you need to stand up.”
Friend:”You need to stop doing the suck.”*passes out again*
Teacher:”[Friend] you can’t just say that.”
(My family somehow has trouble remembering my birthday because it’s on or around Thanksgiving every year. They manage to remember my sister’s birthday, even though they should remember by now that I was born one year and twenty days later. It’s really not that hard. But this year on November 5…)
Dad: EVERYONE REMEMBER THAT IT’S [my sister’s] BIRTHDAY TODAY! DON’T FORGET TO CALL HER!
Me: Dad, [My sister’s] birthday is on November 6. Every year.
Dad: Now, I feel silly.
Me (to roommate): That’s NOT why we remember, remember the 5th of November.
(I work as a security guard in an office building. I’m at the front desk when an employee opens the front door with her bike.)
Employee #1: “Can I bring my bike in?”
Me: “Sorry, but no. There’s a bike rack just around the corner” *I point in the direction of the bike rack 20 feet from her* “or there’s an indoor bike locker in the parking garage across the street.”
Employee #1: “Oh, okay. Thank you.”
(She steps away to use her phone. A couple minutes later another employee comes up to the desk.)
Employee #2: “Hi! My husband is coming to visit this afternoon. Do I have to get him a visitor’s pass?”
(The second Employee #1 notices that I’m distracted, she barrels in with her bike and is up the elevator before I can stop her.)
I helped a library visitor today. He’s nice, and I usually help him with e-mail, printing, and other computer related stuff. But today he brought his own laptop, that he said he had a work resumé on and wanted to send out to the potential employeer.
I find out he doesn’t have a memory stick, so we can’t take the document and plug it into one of our computers and easily print the resumé, so I ask him to set up his laptop and I’ll be right there. His own internet company has a poor connection, so we use our Wi Fi instead. At least that’s what I tried to do, but I’ve never connected Wi Fi to such an old laptop.
I ask him to go home and get his memory stick, so we can print. He says he doesn’t want to print, he wants to e-mail. And points to a hotmail icon. Not a document then. I have to explain to him he has his application saved on his e-mail, which is online, not on his computer.
We log onto one of our computers(which already has internet access), I help him with the e-mail, and it’s sent off.
This story happened when I moved from France to Wales. It was the first time I ever traveled away from home on my own. I had been accepted into a university in wales, however the university was located in a very small town, lost in the welsh countryside. After successfully landing in Cardiff, I realized I had no clue how to even get to that small town. So I looked for some staff member in the airport in order to ask for some help.
Me: “Excuse me, would you happen to know how to go to [Small town]
Staff member 1: “I am afraid I don’t.”
At that moment I had been travelling for 5 hours, the battery of my phone was dead, and I had no clue as to where to go. I was completely lost and panicked.
Staff member 1: “You know what? I think someone here comes from this town. Let me check.”
She then proceed to call one of her colleague who promptly told her that the one working at the currency exchange does come from [Small town]. She walked with me to find him. As soon as I asked how to go there, I saw the staff member take a paper and a pen.
Staff Member 2: “It’s a bit complicated so I will write it down for you.”
I look at him write to me in great details which bus to take, where to stop and so on. After thanking him a lot (mainly because the welsh accent was too hard for me to understand back then), I go on the bus he told me to, stops at the train station, which is no more than a platform in the middle of nowhere, and sit down. I didn’t see anyone at all for 10 min, until a woman who appeared to be in her 70’s arrived. I was completely exhausted and even more panicked due to the fact the train stop had no name, nor a machine to buy a train ticket. to see me panicked, wondering if I am even in the right place or not.
Old woman: Darling, are you alright? Where are you going?”
Me: “To [Small town] But I have no clue if I am at the right station. I can’t even buy a train ticket, there is no machine…”
She looks at my paper and confirm that I am at the right place, then explains to me that I can simply wait for the train controller and buy my ticket from him (something that is not possible in France, you must have your ticket before boarding otherwise you will get fined). She even went as far as stopping two teenagers who walked past us, literally grabbing them by the collar of their shirts.
Old woman: “Hey, you two! Help the young lady with her luggage! Don’t you see she got two suitcases?”
Me: “Oh no that’s alright, I can do it”
Teenagers: “It’s alright, we are happy to help!”
Then finally helped me carry my suitcases as soon as my train arrived, without ever losing their smiles.
This made my day, even my whole week. I have now been living for 8 years in UK, but I will never forget the kindness of those staff members in Cardiff, nor that old woman or those two teenagers who helped a lost and panicked foreigner. Welsh people are truly amazing!
