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I’m not the most diligent twitter-er but wanted to rush to the glorious 65 people who follow me (we’re the little blog that could) and just tell the small twitter-verse about my morning: a total stranger just made my day- and it's only 8:55 AM. what will you do? #actonit #payitforward
This is how that tweet came to be.
I decided to go to Starbucks this morning. The ‘bucks on Peachtree in Brookhaven has a really small parking lot. Some people park on the other side of the lot (5 ft. difference) and some people stay in their cars and go through the drive-thru. I chose the drive-thru considering I was in gym clothes.
There’s an odd area by the entrance of the drive-thru line where cars can come in from two sides. You can either continuously inch your way closer and closer to the car in front of you so THAT person, in THEIR car, OVER THERE, doesn’t CUT YOU OFF… or you can let someone go. Yield- it’s a beautiful thing.
But there is no yield sign. It’s just me and the morning. Me and the radio. Me and my brain thinking about what we could get at Starbucks but ultimately agreeing on “Nah, you always get the same thing… iced skim chai latte”. I was in no rush, I was just there. In my car, enjoying the morning and getting some Starbucks.
I saw what could have been a competing SUV perpendicular to me. “I’m not going to fight you for that spot in line. I’m just chillin’.” It wasn’t a big deal to me, never has been. I didn’t think too much about it; I just let them go ahead of me. The person ordered their drink and 20 seconds later so was I (wow what a wait!). I said good morning to the person on the other side of the intercom and placed my order.
Once I pulled around, I saw the arm of the person in front of me with multiple beaded bracelets pay for her order and do some fun little gesture with her hand- I always wonder what people are saying. She pulled away and I had my $5 ready to give to the Starbucks register… “The woman in front of you wanted me to tell you thank you for letting her in front of you AND she has paid for your drink”.
Are you serious? What? Me? May be you don’t think this is a big deal. May be stuff like this doesn’t make you excited or feel good. I felt awesome. Letting someone go in front of me at the Starbucks drive-thru is not some huge, grand gesture in my opinion, but this woman felt I did something worthy enough for her to pay for my $3.91 beverage.
The “are you kidding me?” reply spilled a few times as I looked ahead to see if the woman was still there, but her and her SUV had pulled away. The Starbucks guy got a nice little laugh out of my surprised reaction and sent me off with a smile and "Have a good one!" Oh believe me I will. Pretty good stuff if you ask me.
I wish I could say thank you to her. So to this perfect stranger who made my day, “Thank you. Your small gesture of kindness put me in such a wonderful mood and mindset for the rest of the day. Whoever you are, you rock. Or as I like to say, awesome-sauce."
Question: How can you make someone’s day- even a strangers? #payitforward #goodthing #awesomesauce
