It’s been a few weeks since my last prompted post. I’ve been trying to manage my current, underemployment with an opportunity for career advancement.Today’s prompt is about kindness. Kindness is somewhat difficult for me to write about. We know what it means to be kind and how to show kindness to others. But the kindness of strangers is something I have little experience deaing with directly.
The instance of kindness I could think of having my bus fare topped up in college after accompanying a passanger with mental deficiets . The person was non verbal and seemed to know where they were going, but the actions and sounds they were making, disturbed the other passangers. Not wanting to alienate the passanger, I sat next to them and drew while the trip progressed. All the whie the passanger, poked and prodded at my like a child would to annoy a parent.
This went on for quite sometime until the passanger got off at their stop and bus mad it to the terminal point. The driver had noticed me and asked if I was the passanger’s care taker. I understand why he thought so because personal/disable care workers happen to look like myself. I stated I was not, I just did it becuase it seemed like the right thing to so.
Evidently, this moved the driver that he offered to load 50 dollars on my transit card. Initially, I refused, for I believed I was just doing the right thing and had no need of reward. Still the driver insisted, stating that he’d seen the passanger take the route many times, yet no one would bother with them. He said he not seen kindness like mine and it should be rewarded.
Being impovereished, I renegged, accepted the payment and went along my way. I guess it’s weird that I’m socialized to be a non-entity, yet I find myself empathetic to the marginalized. Though with the pandemic and my mental health, I find myself becoming more pessimistic. Stll, I try to give kindness to strangers, even though it won’t be offered in return.