Image: Courtesy
By Liza
Verba volant scripta manent…
The day had started off quite badly. I woke up late and started rushing through my everyday schedule of getting ready for school but just a little more rushed as I hurried to get to school in time. Of course, the day you need matatus to move a little bit faster, conductors to be a tad bit polite, the gallivanting guy by the road side to let you be, is the very same day that all this won’t happen(sigh)!!!
So I’m late for class and the lecturer will probably not let me in. Oh and did I mention that the darling lecturer decided to give us a pop C. A. T. (Just what I need)
I pretty much rushed through the previous day with assignments after assignments and cats after cats and yes, a masseuse would be good right about now, but no, what do I get,
no matatus = more time at the bus stop
More time at the bus stop = me later for my class
Me later for my class = me late for the C. A. T.
Me late for the C. A. T.= anxious and frustrated student
Anxious and frustrated student= mashed brain
Mashed brain= poor concentration for my C. A. T. (if I’ll even be allowed to seat it)
Poor concentration = big fat zeros
No need to continue, I know you get the drift no better days in future for me.
So when eventually a mat stops at the bus stop, I’m ready to all but hug the tout of that mat. Horrible day =0 Liz=1
In 10 mins tops, I expect to be in class and last time I checked I was already 30 minutes late, so I stopped checking. You know I’m pretty sure the phrase better late than never was coined for moments like these, so yeah, that’s my life motto at this point.
In the matatu, there’s a guy seated next to me, fidgety and looking worrisome and I’m tempted to ask if he’s okay but I decide against it. I mean, a girl’s gotta pick one struggle and right now I have more than one! But it seems like his troubles are forgotten(at least for now I hope) when he starts chatting me up. Apparently he also has a cat and had learnt of it much later into the night of the previous day (poor soul, makes two of us brother!! ).
Nothing sweeter than finding someone with the same struggle as you. You convince yourself that at least your life is not a train wreck, just a fender bender!. Again, horrible day=0 Liz=1!!!
We exchange niceties and the random/common stranger getting to know stranger talk but that’s not what this story is about. Yeah! sorry, a girl needs to rant sometimes,so sorry you had to read all that first.
The guy says that I look good in spectacles and man!! Maybe it was because it served as a great distraction, or the compliment caught me off guard, the innocence and honesty with which he said it or it was just that I needed encouraging words when my day was going fairly horrible,but needless to say, he made my day.
As I alighted from the matatu, wishing him success in all sincerity, my troubles were forgotten even if only for a moment as I thought about this stranger who made my day even without knowing it, who made me smile when even I didn’t know I was capable of it in that circumstance. He didn’t carry my burden, nor did he help ease it, but just for a while it was all forgotten and all I was thinking about was the kindness of this stranger…
A kind word, a smile across the room or even a helping hand where you can is the least you can do! Be kinder than you feel! (A quote driving me this entire year)
Kindness: pass it on, you never know who needs even the smallest acts of kindness…
Courtesy of https://lizamaingi.wordpress.com/