I was fresh off the plane moving to London and was lugging a massive and heavy suitcase up the stairs in the tube. Now, mind you, Londoners are exceptional commuters and I must have interrupted the proper flow, but one of them, very smartly dressed in a three piece sutie, just grabbed my suitcase with one hand, and left it up the staircase, kept on going at a brisk pace, not a single world, not a single glance. To this day, I’m not sure if it was kindness or sheer irritation at my cluelessness about Tube etiquette. Either way, it still makes me laugh every time I think about it.

When I was ~10 and visiting the US as a tourist I lost my wallet somewhere on Ellis Island and realized it only when I was about to pay for a slice of pizza at some touristy cafe, I was freaked out and a random stranger that wasn’t in the queue just paid for it for me so I didn’t worry. Was only like 5 bucks or something but I still think about that today. Poverty and widespread opioid addiction and HIV was so common in the country I grew up, I was not used to people not caring to waste money just to help a stranger.

Years ago I was working in retail, specifically a computer store. The work was boring, the customers were either rude, dismissive or both and of course, this took a toll on general morale, myself included. It didn’t help that the neighboring store had, like, three songs on loop which drove every employee in earshot crazy, but that’s beside the point.

One Thursday afternoon, it was business as usual. My coworkers took the day off, so I was alone, behind the till, re-evaluating my life choices and the store was empty, save for an occasional window shopper. It was December and the neighboring store changed their regular their regular short playlist of songs for another a completely different (but just as short!) Christmas-themed playlist. On loop again, of course. The store I was working in didn’t have a dress code, so I wore my usual get-up: jeans and whatever T-shirt I grabbed in the morning. That day I was wearing one that my parents brought from France with this picture printed on.

While nurturing my newfound hatred for retail, a shy-looking girl came in, looking for a USB stick. I went through the usual motions, suggesting brands, explaining the differences all while trying to be as cordial as possible. She decided on a brand, so we moved to the register to finish the transaction. As I was printing the receipt, I got a simple “I like your shirt”.

This caught me off-guard. I never received compliments while working. It was… nice. It took me a few seconds to compose myself again. After, I thanked her for the compliment, gave her the receipt and the item she bought and wished her a pleasant day. That girl genuinely made my day and I still think back on that interaction fondly.

We did a little tour on our own into Germany one spring, about 20 years ago. It was only a few days, we didn’t have much money and we absolutely didn’t know what we were doing. We rented a car and just started wandering. It was just at the point of technology where GPS was still new. We didn’t have any so we just started driving with a shitty map and no clue.

We had done some traveling in other countries before and we had met several famously obnoxious German tourists. We had partly expected to meet equally arrogant Germans in their home country.

Instead we met the most open, kind hearted, brilliant people ever. Everywhere we stopped, we’d meet three or four locals who were more than happy to give directions, recommend restaurants, bars, tea shops and sites to see.

At one point we met a truck driver who gave us a ton of information and showed us a driving route on a big format ringed binder map book. When he was done talking, he left the book. We told him he was forgetting his book and he said we could have it as it had detailed updated map info of the entire country. It was an expensive book and I knew it, so I told him not to give it away. He insisted and said he didn’t mind.

I still have that map book on my shelf and whenever I see it, I think of that trip and all those people we met.

Totally loved Germany after that.

My mom and I moved to a new apartment, leaving behind basically everything we owned when I was about 17.

We made a post on Craigslist that said basically “in need of a couch, new apartment, single mom, can’t afford much but can pay up to 30 dollars”

We got dozens of emails. People telling us we could have tables, chairs, pots and pans, clothes… They furnished our entire apartment for nothing.

One time I went to the store to pick up a few things for diner. I went to pay and realized i didn’t have my wallet. The person in line behind me immediately told the cashier they were covering my order. I was very grateful.

I have a friend who worked in Oman for several years. My wife and I went to visit, and the three of us were going to get dinner somewhere. We ended up parking somewhere that wasn’t free, but wasn’t horribly expensive either (honestly, paying for parking is pretty uncommon there from what I saw). Payment was only done in coins or through mobile. Paying with our phones didn’t work, and we only had paper bills, so I went into a small shop asking if they could give me coins.

I can’t remember what the shop was for, but it wasn’t anything touristy. Oman is very highly developed, but I’m always mindful about the privilege I have to travel intentionally as an American. They said I could pay through mobile, which I said didn’t work. The employee walked outside, asked which car was ours, and plugged our license plate into his phone. How long will we stay? Couple hours. Ok, you’re all set. Cool! How much do we owe you? It’s ok. No, we can pay you. No, it’s ok.

He just would not take payment. Even if it was a small thing, the context and optics meant so much to me at the time. If you ever get a chance to go to Oman, I would strongly recommend it before the tourists take over.

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