Random Act of Kindness

This week I had an extra assignment for my service-learning class to perform a random act of kindness and tell the story about it and how the person reacted to it. Things like smiling at someone or holding the door didn’t count. I entered a submission to get the credit for the class, but my RAK didn’t happen until today.

Today I was sitting outside the library talking to my mom on the phone. As I was sitting there a biker pulled up to the bike racks and was trying to lock his bike with a new, still in the packaging U-lock. I glanced at him and saw him struggling with it. I have the same kind of lock for my bike, so I knew that it was a little confusing to use at first. But he continued to struggle with it, and then I noticed that he only had one arm. It was hard enough to get the lock done with two hands and arms, but he was trying to hold the lock against the bike rack with his knees and lock it with just one hand. After letting him have a go at it a time or two I stood up and held the lock while he put the top on. He looked a little surprised that I stood up to help him, and he was quick to thank me and had a big smile on his face. We stood and talked for a minute there outside the library, and then he went inside and I continued talking to my mom. Little things like this always make me realize that doing little things to serve our neighbors really does make a difference in someone’s day. I don’t know this kid, and I doubt that I’ll ever see him again on campus, but his smile was so sincere and genuine; I could feel that he was really appreciative that I had taken 2 minutes to help him out.