People are still good.

I finally finished putting away stuff from my trip last week. Everything I really needed was put away a long time ago, but I put my travel bags up, and sorted souvenirs (keep it or toss it?) and that kind of stuff. I came across a big wad of fresh Kleenex tissues, which reminded me that I had wanted to mention something on my blog.

When I went to New York, DC, and VA for like 9 days at the end of March, I caught a nasty cold. After New York, I was sick for the rest of the trip. I was still a power-tourist with the rest of my friends, but I was constantly on cold medicine, and didn't feel great.

At the end of the trip, I was still sick. I had a cough that came and went, and my nose was sometimes-congested, sometimes-runny. And I felt not-great. It sucked. Flying home was no fun. I always hate leaving trips because everything I've been anticipating, and being excited about, and then everything I've been doing is over. Plus I always have to carry my own heavy luggage, which I'm perfectly willing to do, but it makes me grumpy. And I was leaving my best friends, knowing that I won't see them for a long time. And I was sick.

At the Baltimore Airport, I went to a bathroom to get some tissue from one of the stalls. Half ply tissue is no fun to use when your nose is stuffy-runny-stuffy-runny because it makes your nose raw, but it's definitely better than nothing.

I blew my nose in the bathroom, and a lady offered me tissue. I told her no, I'd be fine, thanks. She offered again, and told me she had a whole box. Well, okay, I told her. So she pulled out a full size box of Kleenex (not even one of the cutesy square ones), and yanked out half of the Kleenex. It was a huge stack of pre-folded, meant-for-faces tissue. I thanked her. She said I was welcome, and said again about having a whole box of tissue. And then I flew home. It was way more than enough tissue for my flights.

The thing was, though, she didn't even know me. And she didn't just pull out several sheets. She gave me half of her box. And I don't know if it was her good deed for the day, or if she even gave it a second thought afterwards, or what, but I was having an awful day and she made it much, much better with a simple act of kindness. Even thinking about it a month later, it still makes me a little teary.

Sometimes, when I help people, I'm more of a give them several tissues kind of girl, and not a yank out half the box kind of girl. I'm sure that's really normal, but I think I need to constantly look for opportunities to share everything and not just enough for it to count as sharing.

Anyway, my point was really this:
People are still good, and little things do make a difference.