It Happened To Me: Random Act Of Kindness

April 13, 2017

You know how you make assumptions about people based on how they look, only to have them prove you wrong?

Well, it happened to me…

It was Valentine’s day, and I woke up in a bad mood because I have never been big on holidays. I was running late for my French class, and the bus was moving so slow that Tuesday morning. I looked outside my window, and I was disgusted by all the red clothes – as usual, many Nigerian were wearing the colour of love. The slow bus coupled with the Valentine’s day festivities just made me grumpy. I had my face squeezed into a demeaning frown, and I’m pretty sure I looked scary.

While the battle was raging on in my head, I completely blocked out the other passengers and paid them no mind. I did, however, notice that a guy was sitting beside me. He was wearing a faded blue shirt, and he had a funny haircut that made his head look like a pineapple. He wasn’t exactly pleasing to the eye, so I took my eyes back to the busy road and continued my internal battle.

When we finally reached the bus-stop, I quickly stretched the notes in my hand to the driver, excited to be getting off the bus. But the driver’s next words shocked me: “That guy don pay for you na, abi you wan dash me this one?”

I was surprised; If I was light skinned I would have turned red from all the blushing. I didn’t even get a chance to say thank you because when I scanned the crowd of passengers around the bus, I couldn’t find the guy. He didn’t even ask for my number like most guys do these days.

What this guy showed me is that it is not good to judge people by how they look. Because he was not attractive, I had written him off, but to my surprise, he did something that I wouldn’t forget in a hurry.