My journey to Sweden started with a plane from Dallas to Helsinki. It was a flight of more than 9 hours. I was seated by myself on the aisle, which meant that I was not going to be bothered during the flight (or so I thought) until a not so nice individual, with a not so nice attitude and behaviour came to be sitted next to me. I didn’t know what to expect and there’s nothing that prepares you for that moment; everyone has already paid for their ticket (it’s not like you’re gonna kick them out) and the plane was full, so what do you do in these situations?
At first, I tried explaining everything to a flight attendant who passed by but she was non-responsive towards my request (I wanted to change seats). She said there was no way for me to change seats because they were already assigned and this was my given seat. It seemed like I was going to be stuck there for the next few hours. Before losing hope, I tried one last thing. I wrote everything on a note on my phone, stood up, went directly to the back of the plane and gave the note to another flight attendant. She calmly read through my text in which I was asking for a change of seats but I didn’t know if it was going to work.
To my surprise, after she read my note, she told me: “wait a second”. Then she came with me to my seat to assess the situation but then left me there. I thought I was going to stay there, but a little over 5 minutes later, she arrived and told me that I could change seats. I don’t know how, but she managed to make some arrangements and found a way for me to be moved to the other side of the plane to have a new seat between a very elegant Japanese-American gentleman and a Lithuanian lady.
She simply could’ve just not taken the time to understand me or not do anything and go on with her work (because with such a large, full plane, believe me, there was a lot of work to do), but instead, she chose to care.
“In a world where you can be anything, be kind“
– Unkown
After a brief stop in Finland, I took another plane and arrived to Gothenburg later that day. I had to wait a few hours for my Flixbus to take me to Jönköping and it had been a while since I last ate something, so I searched for something to eat. There were not that many options that seemed suitable for me at the time because I didn’t recognize half the things that were available to eat, but that was natural because it was my first time in Sweden and of course I was going to find culinary differences with my country.
I took what seemed to be a safe option and bought a little slice of pizza and a beverage that was like lemonade, which is of course good since food is a blessing, but I was still craving for something more to fill my stomach. After looking for a while, I didn’t find anything that was not expensive, so I just went along with what I already had chosen and went to the line to pay.
After waiting for a little while, it was my turn to pay. The cashier was so nice and was making small talk with me, and I was telling him how this was my first time in Sweden, that I didn’t know what to expect, how everything seemed so different in terms of food and he took the time to explain me everything: how in Sweden they don’t use the euro and that everything is mostly paid by card and explained the different options on the menu. I knew that I couldn’t spend that much on just one meal, so after being asked if I wanted anything else, I just told him: “no thank you, it’s a little too expensive”.
After paying, I was about to leave when he told me: “hey bro, why don’t you take some of the food I have here, it’s on the house”. And he grabbed a bag and started packing it with more food for me to have, as he was telling me: “here, this is a classic swedish dish, hope you like it”. I didn’t ask for it, but it was so nice of him to do that because it was more than double of what I already paid, and as he said, he didn’t charge me a single cent. I told him: “are you sure?”, to which he answered: “yeah bro, please take it, there’s no problem”. He could have simply done nothing and continued working and not care, but he didn’t, and instead, he decided to do something nice. I was very thankful and left to find a good place to eat and wait, but that day taught me a very important lesson.
We live in a world that on occasions, may seem like it’s complicated, full of hate towards each other and with people who just go on without caring about others and although it may seem hard to find a glimpse of kindness amidst all that atmosphere that covers our days, it’s situations like that that reminded me that every once in a while, you do come across certain people who selflessly do something good for someone without expecting something in return.
In both cases, we didn’t know each other and probably we will never meet again; but they probably didn’t know how those actions made a huge impact on me. The thing is, that it really doesn’t take a lot to make a difference, it’s those little gestures, like a smile, a greeting or helping someone out, that can make a big difference in someone’s day, because in the end:
“Being kind is free”
Writer: Braulio Monforte
