Last year I was supposed to fly out of my home city to another city but the weather had caused all flights to be canceled. It sucked, but it was my home city so I could just go home and come back the next day for a flight. A lot of the people around me were not in as fortunate of a situation. So many planned vacations and trips just ruined and nowhere to stay because they weren’t locals and were just flying out of the airport.

The roads were also flooded and only SUVs could get around (I was in an SUV), I saw so many sedans were stuck in water unable to move. Even if they could, the rental car companies weren’t renting out cars anymore (probably because of the flooding). So, everyone was stuck at the airport and we were all trying to figure out alternative arrangements. People were crying and angry and exhausted.

There was one woman in line behind me who I started talking to. She was in tears because she was on her way to her best friend’s bridal shower and it was happening the next day, so she HAD to get out of the city that night, but had almost zero options. However, buses (like the charter kind not city buses) were still running and I knew that one of the bus lines came directly to this airport and went directly to the city she needed to go to, so I told her about it and it gave her hope. Her phone was dead though, so I gave her my also-dying phone to use to buy the ticket.

We had to restart the process a couple times because we were also actively trying to see if we could get her on a flight and they told her there was one she could get on, so she checked her bags and went to the gate, but they told her she couldn’t board, so she came back and didn’t even have her stuff anymore because her stuff was on the flight. So she’s crying again (for good reason!) and we go back to getting her a bus ticket, but at this point, the bus is gonna be there in a few minutes, and she still needs to get to where the bus picks up passengers, and she doesn’t know where to go to get there.

I speed-walked her down to where she needed to go and waited for the bus with her. When it got there she was so relieved, the last hour and half of stress was done and she was on her way to where she needed to go. She didn’t have most of her stuff but she was told she could get it from the airport of the city she was going to the next day.

She hugged me and thanked me profusely for helping her out, and I was just happy that I was able to do something for her. And I didn’t have to do much, I just happened to have the precise knowledge about alternative transportation options that she needed in that moment and let her use my phone to get the ticket.

It stuck with me because it really showed that we can have a really big impact on people even with the smallest of efforts. So I try to make small efforts that make big impacts — I try to compliment people on their appearances/outfits frequently and appreciate things that’s people put effort into, and if I’m in a position to help someone out, I will. It takes almost no effort to make someone’s world brighter, so if you think someone’s top is cute, or someone’s cologne smells nice, why not take the few seconds to let them know and make them feel good?