32 New Things: Pay for the person behind me in the drive-through.
I didn't plan to accomplish this today. I planned to go to Starbucks but I planned to only buy overpriced coffee for myself because, let's be honest- I'm greedy. I'm also collecting stars on my Starbucks card and if you buy 2 coffees you only get one star but spend twice as much money. Like I said, greedy.
The person ahead of me in line was annoying me. To be fair, most people/events annoy me prior to 8:30AM and my first cup of coffee, but this guy wasn't paying attention and let big gaps open up between him and the car in front of him. I mean, we're waiting! We're all waiting here! Move along! Then he decided to clean his windshield in line and the wiper fluid sprayed onto my car and through my open sunroof. Pre-coffee me was definitely perturbed even though I fully realize this was almost definitely not an intentional act of aggression toward me. But, whatever. He got his coffee, paid, left. My turn. The Barista greeted me with a smile- "He paid for you!"
Boom, roasted. I was totally caught off guard. There I was, silently stewing about his window cleaning, and he was paying for my drink. So then I was like, "Can I pay for the person behind me?" And I did and I left and that was that. I like to think it started a whole chain of events, though, and maybe everyone in line was so surprised and pleased by their free drink that they kept paying for the next person and on and on and no one will ever buy their own coffee at that Starbucks again. Or at least until there's a lull in the line and there's no one to pay for. Probably not, but I can pretend.
The lesson I've learned from all this is that it feels really good when a stranger does a nice thing for you unexpectedly. I seriously couldn't stop smiling about my stupid free coffee, which wasn't really even free because I paid for the next person anyway. But it was so refreshing to be reminded that there are nice people out there- maybe lots of them- who will do thoughtful things for others with no expectation of a reward or acknowledgment or anything else other than maybe the good feeling you get from being a nice person. And if I can pass that feeling on to someone else, and make their day a little bit brighter, all for the price of a cup of coffee, even, then I'd like to do that.
The person ahead of me in line was annoying me. To be fair, most people/events annoy me prior to 8:30AM and my first cup of coffee, but this guy wasn't paying attention and let big gaps open up between him and the car in front of him. I mean, we're waiting! We're all waiting here! Move along! Then he decided to clean his windshield in line and the wiper fluid sprayed onto my car and through my open sunroof. Pre-coffee me was definitely perturbed even though I fully realize this was almost definitely not an intentional act of aggression toward me. But, whatever. He got his coffee, paid, left. My turn. The Barista greeted me with a smile- "He paid for you!"
Boom, roasted. I was totally caught off guard. There I was, silently stewing about his window cleaning, and he was paying for my drink. So then I was like, "Can I pay for the person behind me?" And I did and I left and that was that. I like to think it started a whole chain of events, though, and maybe everyone in line was so surprised and pleased by their free drink that they kept paying for the next person and on and on and no one will ever buy their own coffee at that Starbucks again. Or at least until there's a lull in the line and there's no one to pay for. Probably not, but I can pretend.
The lesson I've learned from all this is that it feels really good when a stranger does a nice thing for you unexpectedly. I seriously couldn't stop smiling about my stupid free coffee, which wasn't really even free because I paid for the next person anyway. But it was so refreshing to be reminded that there are nice people out there- maybe lots of them- who will do thoughtful things for others with no expectation of a reward or acknowledgment or anything else other than maybe the good feeling you get from being a nice person. And if I can pass that feeling on to someone else, and make their day a little bit brighter, all for the price of a cup of coffee, even, then I'd like to do that.
Comments