“Want a hat?” Uncle Steve asked, plopping a black fedora on my head. “Do you have change?” He dropped a massive fistful of euros into my palm. “That stuff comes in handy.” And then he sat down at the computer and paid for my train ticket from Neumünster to Amberg.
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| Pictured: awesome hat and chocolate. |
I was speechless. He had told me he would get me to my next destination, but Amberg is a very long train ride away, and I was hoping for a lift to the station, nothing more. I didn’t know what to do or how to react, other than tearing up a bit and saying, “Thank you.”
“You know I know what it’s like not to have money,” he said. “So does Anna.”
Uncle Steve and Anna dropped me off at the train station armed with a ticket, a pocketful of change, a sandwich, a banana, a croissant, some German chocolate, and a new hat. I felt ready to take on the world. I cried a bit on the train ride every time I thought about the generosity I’d just been shown.
This happens to me a lot when I’m on the road. People are exceptionally generous, related to me or not. They pay for food, give me rides, offer me opportunities, feed me hot chocolate. I am often overwhelmed by the lengths people will go to in order to help me. And all I can do is get teary-eyed and say “Thank you.”
There is no way I can ever pay these wonderful people back. My only way of truly saying “Thank you” is to pay that generosity forward.
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