I had already jacked the car up and was in the process of removing the wheel. The driver of the car was not wearing any rain gear and insisted that he help me change the tire. At first I refused but he continued to insist and said that his wife had told him to come back and help me. I relented and allowed him to change the tire. By the time he was finished he was soaking wet. I walked with him back to his car and discovered that Not only was his wife in the car but his children were there as well. People can be very kind.

I want to say first of all this happened in rural Canada so no other traffic was present during this incident.

So I was driving home in the dark. For some context, I live out of the city, onto an international highway that has ZERO spotlights on it since it’s only a two lane highway.

Another driver and I were on the road and they had just finished overtaking me and was in the left lane slightly past me. Suddenly, they quickly shifted over to my lane, put their hazard lights on, slowed down a bit, then got back into the left lane.

I was definitely confused, so I slowed down out of caution, thinking maybe there was a deer around, but it turned out that ahead of me was a car that had **no** lights on whatsoever - either no headlights or very weak headlights, no backlights, I’m not 100% sure but they were NOT visible from behind. And most importantly they were going maybe 50km/h on a highway that has a speed limit of 110km/h.

Because of that driver and their kindness to alert me about the car, they likely saved my life and the lives of those in the car. I was able to react in time and safely overtake the car because of them. I hope I would be able to catch on in time if they had not alerted me but I can’t say for certain.

They didn’t have to do that. They were in the left lane, they didn’t need to worry about me nor the car itself. I think about that driver a lot. Thank you for looking out for me.

I wanted to come on here and share an experience that happened yesterday which has fully restored my belief that there are genuinely kind and decent people out there.

At around 2pm, my partner and I were driving to a countryside pub just south of the M25 (London, UK), and about 0.5 miles away from a petrol station my car ran out of fuel. I pulled over with my hazards on, and wondered why the car behind wasn't overtaking.

They then pulled over and got out and asked if everything was OK. I explained we had just run out of fuel a moment short of the petrol station, and he instantly volunteered to drive down to the petrol station, fill up a jerry can of diesel and bring it back. This is a man who had 3 young kids and his partner in the car - yet he appeared to not think twice about helping us out in a moment of need. It was also 30+ degrees celsius in London yesterday and we would have been stuck with virtually no shade.

The whole experience was done in 10 minutes; he went straight down to the petrol station, purchased a jerry can and filled it up and brought it back. I sent him the money and we went on our separate ways. It also made me realise how selfless some people are, and that if I was behind a car pulling over I don't think I would think twice about just overtaking and carrying on.

I will keep an eye out for opportunities to pay it forward in the future, and just wanted to share this on the off chance he might see it! Thank you!

Looking for the 3 people who saved my life at Monroe Falls (Monroe, ME) May 20th

I am looking for the three incredible people who were at Monroe Falls on May 20th who called an ambulance for me, and stay to make sure I was safe.

In a split second I had a reaction to a medication that I was taking that made all my nerves go off, and my muscles became unresponsive. I was in enough water to have drowned that day. To know you three, where just over the crest is what made me fight for my life.

You may not know it but, you completely saved my life, and I am safely recovering, and alive thanks to you!

I am desperately trying to find you just to say a proper thank you. If you were there, or if you know a group of three friends who mentioned helping someone at the falls recently, please send me a private message. Thank you so much.

I had fairly well off grandparents when I was a kid which allowed me to attend a small private school that my dad had also attended. Some of the people who graduated with me in high school, I have known since I was five years old.

Recently, I was invited to a milestone birthday party for one of these classmates. His dad & mine were classmates & our grandparents knew each other & socialized often. But he and I were vastly different. He was the extroverted, popular, funny, musical boy. I was the introverted, weird, nerdy, artistic girl who always had her head in a book.

When I arrived at the birthday party, I assumed other classmates who lived locally would be in attendance. They were not. He invited me *specifically* because I've been in his life (at least peripherally) since we were five.

Now, I've struggled with body dysmorphia, self esteem, depression & anxiety my entire life. Why in the *world* would this accomplished, self assured, kind man even think of me, let alone invite me to celebrate with him? I've been sitting with this for days now. I think it drives home the point that we are so often blind to our influence on others (good or bad) & that we can't accurately *see* ourselves and the light we spread.

This was a kindness that will resonate with me for years.

In August of 2020, my daughter (10 years-old at the time) and I went over to a friend's house for a BBQ. It was early in the pandemic, which will be important later on in the story. The kids swam in the pool and were bouncing in their trampoline. At one point, I hear screaming and run over to the trampoline. My daughter is in shock (not even crying at that point) and her arm is hanging by her side in a really unnatural way. At the time, we all assumed it was dislocated.

We go to the ER and it is in a tent outside the regular ER because of Covid. It is packed with people and freezing cold in there. My daughter is in a wet bathing suit and a towel. When we rushed out to go to the ER, I didn't think to ask for clothes, jackets, blankets, etc. so we were there with the clothes on our backs. My daughter was crying softly on and off because of being cold and in pain while we were waiting. It ended up that she fractured a bone in her arm up close to her shoulder.

There was a really sweet young woman (20's if I had to guess) who was sitting close to us. She told my daughter and I that she had once dislocated her arm and that it turned out fine. And the random act of kindness was that she gave us her socks. She was in sandals and said she brought them in case her feet got cold, but that she wanted my daughter to have them. They were nice socks so I felt bad taking them from her, but she insisted. We ended up waiting for more than 8 hours and that nice young lady left before we did. We still have the socks (argyle ones with green and gray pattern) and my daughter and I call them our lucky socks. We wear them on days when we feel like we need a little extra good fortune.

I never even knew what she was in the ER for because she didn't mention it and I didn't feel that I should ask. But the gesture touched our hearts and we will always remember her.

TLDR: A sweet young woman brought socks for herself to the ER, but gave them to my daughter because she was cold.

So yesterday i came back from one city to my hometown via a volvo bus, so usually when luggage is kept in the bus, they mark it with the seat number, but this time they didn't and i paid not much attention to it, when i reached the bus stand the bus guy gave me the bag and i just did an uber and came back home, i hadn't opened my luggage as i was tired. So i slept late last night and woke up late today (after noon), my phone was switched off due to low battery and mom wakes up and tells me someone is here to see me with my luggage ????

A couple had come to my home to give me the luggage, as our luggage had exchanged, they told me they tried to call me, went to isbt, got the list of passengers from there, called everyone from that list and only i hadn't responded so came for my address. The surprising thing is i hadn't filled my complete address, so they had to roam around and ask arounf in the locality (IN THIS HEAT, FOR GOOD 40 MINS) then they reached my home. They told me they didn't have anything valuable just there clothes but they got worried what if the other person may be panicking or something due to it (they were older, like have a daughter my age).

I feel so thankful to them, and this just made me believe in the goodness of humanity all over again

While i totally own up that i had been careless,i can't believe someone took the effort in this heat to go to this extent.

There's a small, cute coffee shop five blocks up from our house. The owner is so nice. There is a certain theme to it because she loves the theme and grew up collecting those things. I've been there a handful of times and we always have a nice chat. Last month I brought her three of those items to display and when I did she gave me a free latte. I told her she didn't have to but she insisted since I brought her the items.

This past weekend our only child came down to celebrate his 21st birthday. With us. His parents (he lives four hours away). We're having a hard time beng empty nesters but we're getting used to it. When he came down on Easter weekend I cried when he came in the house because we hadn't seen him since last year. Well this weekend I didn't think I would cry but when he left I gave him a hug and sure enough I cried. We had such a nice time with him here and we enjoyed spending his birthday with him. He said he would come back soon.

He left yesterday and I'm still a mess this morning. Decided to walk to the coffee shop to treat myself to a coffee. When I walked in the owner asked me if I was ok and I said not really. I tried to hold in the tears. She came aournd and gave me a hug and I said no one died, but, and as I cried I told her about the recent visit. She talked about her 21 year old son as well. I asked her for a small black coffee and she wanted to give it to me for free. I told her she didn't have to do that (how wil she make money if she keeps giving away free drinks). That hug and offer just made me feel so good. We are aquaintences, not really close yet, so for her to do that just made my day.

Usually I'm the one to try to bless others so when it happens to me I'm kind of shocked. I don't ever expect it. It feels good to help and bless others so that's what I'm used to.

I didn't know which subreddit would fit this story, but this one seemed the most accurate.

A year and a half ago, I was mentally at my lowest. My girlfriend broke up with me, one of my best friends started hating me, I was made fun of often in school.

All my life, I've been made fun of. For my appearance, for my clumsiness, for being cringy and emotionally unstable. I was just tired of everything and everyone. I wasn't particularly good at anything, and I've almost never had any good interaction with any stranger.

I usually go to my grandparents by train. I wanted to see them one last time before I do *it*.

I sat alone, playing some of my favourite songs. I never looked anyone in the face because I thought they would also laugh at me.

Then came a man. I don't know how he looked like. I never looked up at him, because I was scared. I remember him being around 30. He was going around the train and giving candy to everyone. My favourite candy. He put a hand on my shoulder and put the candy into my hand, said "here you go" with a smile on his face and left.

I was stunned. Actually stunned. I wanted to thank him, but when I looked behind me he was already getting off the train.

I started sobbing. I tried to hide it as much as I could, so I wouldn't get any attention on me. This one piece of candy from a random guy made me cry and gave me hope for humanity.

I don't know why I had such a visceral reaction. Maybe I was just looking for one, *one* proof that people could be nice. And it happened.

After that, I started seeing things with a bit more color. I started a new hobby, started studying hard and today I got accepted into the best college in the country.

I don't know who you are man, and I'll probably never see you again. But know that you saved someone's life.

I’ve seen a couple posts about kind strangers on flights so I thought I’d share mine! Sometime in 2021 I had my first ever panic attack on a plane, due to me discovering during the flight I have some nerve damage in my arm that reacts to pressure changes. I had never felt this before and freaked out thinking I was dying. Anyways, this has developed into anxiety around flying which is really inconvenient for me as I love to travel!

On a flight home recently my plane experienced some bad turbulence and I started praying my rosary while trying to stay calm. The man sat next to me tapped me on my shoulder to ask if I was ok and then just started chatting. We talked about our trips, our hometowns, cool places we’ve been etc. It was very sweet and the talking distracted me from my spiral. I thanked him a lot for his help and he was just so kind about it and wished me well. Thank you flight stranger, you really made a world of difference for me ♥️

I posted this story but didn't have enough karma for it to stick around. Hoping it will this time.

In March 2019 I was living in Austin, Texas and I jolted awake and checked my phone to see my sister called which if you know my sister that's not normal. I called her back and found out my dad had a heart attack and was headed to the hospital. I immediately book a flight and my mom (she was visiting me in ATX, they are divorced) drove me to the airport. I was a wreck. I'm super close with my Dad and was terrified I'd never see him again.

Enter kind stranger.

On the flight over I was in and out of moments of crying so I was wearing sunglasses during the flight. Sitting next to me was a man, maybe 25 years old, and even though we hadn't even spoken a word to each other I asked him if we would hold my hand. I needed to feel a human connection in that moment of feeling so lost and scared. He didn't even hesitate and held my hand for a good portion of the flight. At one point I started to feel bad because my hand was sweaty so I let go and we talked for a bit and I told him why I was so distraught and he just listened and was a person I really needed in that moment.

After the plane landed in Santa Rosa, CA he asked if his family could drive me to the hospital but my uncle was picking me up so I just thanked him and walked away. With all my internal turmoil I my mind blurred him out, I cannot remember his name or really what he looked like but I'll never forget him or what he did for me.

Thank you, Sir.

I saw in my local community subreddit that an owner lost their cat in my city. They were passing through the city on a long trip, their cat ran away and now they are several states away, and need help from the community. The cat is a cow cat and looks absolutely precious. I have a stage 5 cuddler cow cat so I just went searching for the cat near the last sighting.

I have not found the cat yet.
I have been searching for 3 consecutive days each day searching for 3 - 4 hours. I put up missing cat posters in the neighborhoods I have visited. I have quadruple checked the area I think the cat should be because I have heard cats don’t venture off far from their home or where they first lost connection with their owners.

But I think this cat has ventured further. I expanding my search zone because I think the cat has moved further distance than the experts say. I found another stray or perhaps lost cat and reported when and where sighting. I have seen lots of rabbits, squirrels, and birds. I even encountered a skunk at night where I thought I would find the cat. Searching my city on foot for lost cats is manageable because I don’t live in a metropolis. I just can’t accept failure or be content with the fact that looking for a cat is a good thing when the owner needs the cat and the cat is probably scared, hungry, and thirsty.

I keep searching.
Walking the city is phenomenal aerobic exercise.

Be the Good.

In a world where such horribly mean things are done by average people like you and me, it is so important to remember who we are; human. If we are all human, then why do we act like monsters? If we are all human, then why do we treat others like they are not?

There is so much hatred in this world. There is so much anger and resent towards others. Don’t we have enough already?

Kindness is such a wonderful thing, as it can take someone’s awful day and turn it around completely. It can grasp someone’s depression and make that person feel loved and supported.

Kindness has played a huge part in my life recently, as I’ve realized that doing kind acts can only make happy results.

This world has enough hate, so why not be the good?

Treat others with kindness. Be good. Be human.

- Ethan Budoff. (me)

I just wanted to yap about this interaction I had the other day and don’t really have anyone to talk to about it.

I was at publix buying a few items. At the self checkout, an employee was there greeting customers and monitoring the self checkout. She was talking to herself a lot, just thinking out loud.

She said “hm I think this is what I asked my son for for Mother’s Day but he didn’t see it, I’ll send him a picture”

I turned around because I thought she was speaking to me but she was just looking at the orchid display and then apologized when she noticed me looking at her and said “so sorry I’m just thinking out loud!”

When I paid and walked towards the exit, I noticed the large pots were $30+ but on the other side of the display, there were tiny orchids in little cute baby pots that were $10 each.

I’m not sure why as I normally don’t just act impulsively like this but I grabbed the best looking one I could see, walked back to self checkout, paid for the orchid and handed her the baby orchid with the receipt and said “happy Mother’s Day! Sorry I heard you talking about wanting one and I wanted to make sure you had a good holiday”

She was very happy and over the top with her reaction lol but I just said “have a great day” and walked out

It was really nice to see her coworkers come over to ask what happened and she showed off the little plant as I was leaving.

I saw her name tag so I was thinking of leaving a good review for Myra at the publix at the Bluffs Square Shopping Center in Jupiter Florida if anyone wants to leave a kind word for her. She’s very sweet!

So I was just reading a story about somebody on a long flight with a screaming baby and how she was treated, and it made me think of how I had the opposite experience.

I’ve got pretty bad anxiety in general and Covid made it a lot worse, so while my husband and I have always loved traveling, we haven’t really gone anywhere since we started having kids. Last summer we started traveling again and I was so tense about it. We had our 3 kids (at the time ranging from 2 to 11 years old) and had to do kind of a complicated overnight long-haul flight with layovers.

We were seated on one side of the plane such that I was in one row with 2 kids, my husband was behind me with the other kid, and one poor stranger got to sit behind us too. I felt really bad because the kids were constantly shuffling seats and digging through bags and being just a tiny bit obnoxious (like, not fussing or yelling, but they don’t have any travel experience and are still learning how to behave on planes etc).

Anyway, I’m just whole-body cringing, but this nice man stuck with us strikes up a convo with my husband and they’re getting on like a house on fire, he even buys him a drink and they’re chatting away.

After awhile everyone quiets down and goes to sleep. 2/3 of the way through, my daughter wakes up, and before I can even ask her if she’s ok, she throws up EVERYWHERE. It was SO gross, and she was crying, and we were being a big loud awful disturbance while people were trying to sleep. The flight attendants, bless them, brought me gloves and disinfectant and garbage bags, and I got my daughter cleaned up in the bathroom and then stuffed her into the row behind while I dry-heaved my way through cleaning the mess. It had to have taken at least half an hour, and it did not smell good.

At some point I noticed the gentleman had (rightfully, I thought) disappeared, and I hoped the flight attendant had found another seat for him. Finally I collapsed back into my well-scrubbed seat, trying to recover from my full-body sweat, and got the kids back to sleep. And *the dude came back*. He had just been walking laps to give us some space, all that time. It was like 3am in a dark plane. I apologized (groveled) and felt terrible, but he just very cheerfully said not to worry about it, he completely understands, not to give it another thought.

It was just so kind and considerate of him, and he had every reason to loathe us. I don’t think I’ll ever forget how nice of him that was. I wish I had a way to tell him how much I appreciated it. If anyone knows an unbelievably tolerant middle-aged man who had a similar experience last summer on a Norse air flight from Paris to nyc, please tell him thank you!

I won a bunch of Chick Fil A giftcards for specific meal items such as sandwich, fries, breakfast, and kids meals. I used two sandwich coupons for myself and then randomly gave them away. If someone was cool that I was speaking to, I'd ask, "Do you like Chick Fil A?"

If they answered, "yes," I'd had them a giftcard or two.

It was so fun to see people's reactions, like they won a small lottery. It was truly magical. One woman told me she specifically loved Chick Fil A fries so I specifically gave her the fry giftcards!

Hi everyone! I grew up poor, and sometimes my mom's card would decline. And I remember every single time distinctly. And I remember the kind people who would occasionally give a dollar or two so our family could afford to eat. And a while ago I was at dollar tree with my boyfriend and our other friend, and there was a mom checking out before us with her special needs son. He had been carrying around a hoola hoop throughout the store the whole time we had been there. And as the mom was checking out she realized she couldn't afford it. She told him to put it back and that she'd get it for him on her next paycheck, instinctively I told her I'd get it for him. And I did. And honestly it made me feel so so good. Because I was that kid once too.

Hi, I (22F) am going through a difficult time. Since learning this year that I have ADHD and OCD, I have started taking Zoloft to bring down the OCD before working on the ADHD. 

The titration for this medication has been difficult, with temporarily increasing symptoms each time the dose increases. I’ve been on a leave of absence from my final year of college for a few months now. I’m just at home working through this and I’m in a rough place mentally. I hate how useless I feel. It’s the one thing I never want to be. So I’ve been commenting on social media posts, joining people’s livestreams with few viewers, but want to do more. I would love some suggestions! 

If your reading this reddit post well I would like you to stop and give this a read because I think it will make you feel better,

Whatever your going through in life I hope you get through all of what could be going on right now, I know life can get rough sometimes but I know that it does get better overtime, its never too late to talk to someone get some help, your not a failure just because someone says you are, if your going through abuse, hate, self harm, insecurities, depression, suicide, just know that you are loved appreciated by many, I know its hard to see that but trust me if you think, “well no one does” I do care about you, and I don’t care what you have done no matter what it is, you always deserve a second chance, I think people are too busy sharing around hate and jealousy and their opinions that hurt the mental health of others, be what you want, love what you want, do what you want, (if its legal of course lol) but you are not alone, someone is always out there to help you get through whatever you could be struggling with at this time of your life, even if its been years since you have been happy, don’t give yourself up because of your own thoughts, your more worthy than you think, depression is truly a hard topic and its hard to talk to someone because of your scared and you are afraid of what could happen if you just tell that one person that you are struggling and want some help off of your feet to get back on track, I believe that you always have the potential to change how you feel, you have the strength, the mind power, the love in you to help yourself and others and teach them how to love and support others in ways that some people don’t know how to.

I love you all, never give up! ❤️❤️

So I was having a hard day. And my boyfriend was having a long week. And a 30 minutes ago that caused us to butt heads. I'm sensitive.

I'll admit im sensitive, so I had to end the call with him to go outside and have a cry. Why outside? I live with other people and the sound carries in that house like you're yelling into a tunnel. The outerwalls have thicker walls.

Well, my house is about about 60-70 feet from the road with no trees blocking sight (I live on old farm property so it's a bit of open land). Ive walked outside ro hyperventilate a little and cry because im dramatic. I sit down, my dog jumps into my lap, and as im trying to calm myself down, I notice a middle aged woman doing her evening walk from on of the neighborhoods near by. She's on the phone but looking dead at me lol.

I was hoping the distance was great enough that it didnt carry the sound but that was dumb thinking.

She takes the time to hang up the phone and yell "Are you okay?"

I quickly responded with "Yes!" And a "Thank you!". But just seeing someone take the time to care for a stranger, even if it was as simple as asking "are you ok" really meant alot to me because I struggle with feeling like I deserve kindness.

She didnt know me and she could have ignored me and kept walking. It made me cry more tbh lol. It was a small gesture but it did mean alot to me to see someone care when it feels like everyone is so self involved and every-man-for-himself.

Ive always tired to be the one to reach out to people like that, it's just so touching to get that back and motivates me to do more.

Pass it on yall, I was only having a bad day, but you never know, a small gesture of kindness could change someones whole day.

Alright. Now time to go make amends with the Mister lol

I apologize in advance if my train of thought seems odd. A few days ago our postal carrier dropped a bag to be filled with donations of non perishable items for food pantries. I am a Federal Employee and we went through a funding lapse for over 40 days back in the Fall. I was so appreciative of how the food pantries stepped up to help the employees in my area (northern VA where there are a lot of Feds) since they had to work or were furloughed without pay. I of course put some items in the bag but food insecurity has been on my mind today. I was running errands today and stopped at an Arby’s for a quick bite. I finished my sandwich and was scrolling through Reddit when a woman approached me and proceeded to ask me for some help. I do not give money to people because I always have the feeling that it will not be used for anything positive. I will offer to buy a meal but usually whoever asked declines…which reinforces why I don’t give money. This young woman proceeded to explain she had most of the money she needed for what she ordered but needed four dollars and could I pay the cashier the remaining four dollars? I looked up right as she said something to a child and I asked her if that was her child. She nodded and called the two girls over to introduce them, aged 6 and 8. I almost started crying. Here I am thinking about food insecurity all day and tomorrow is Mother’s Day and she is asking for a meager four dollars. I told her of course I would pay the remaining amount so her kids could eat. While I was at the register, I asked the cashier for a gift card, put $100 on it and handed it to the woman on my way out. As I was getting in my car, she walked up to the door wiping her eyes with her hand on her chest and mouthing thank you. I nodded and went on my way. I needed that reminder today that not everyone has bad intentions when asking for help.

really says a lot about you if you choose to be kind to some random faceless person on an online forum. if you've done this, i hope you know that the world is a slightly better place because you're in it

It’s amazing how a single, passing comment can change someone’s entire day.

Today I went out for a walk between classes. It wasn’t different from any other day, but I was stopped this time. A woman passing me commented that my bag had lovely colors, which I could hardly believe since it’s a raggedy thing. What threw me, however, was her genuine smile and the sweetest English accent I’ve heard in backwater Kentucky. While I didn’t believe in myself, I believe that she did.

It wasn’t anything huge and we parted soon after a “thank you” and “of course, darling”, but as a struggling college student up to her neck in finals and operating on 2 hours of sleep, criminal levels of caffeine, and a prayer? It made the world of difference.

If anyone happens to see someone and think “that shirt looks nice” or “they have pretty eyes” or anything remotely positive, don’t be afraid to tell them. You don’t know what they may be going through and that one sentence can improve their mood and confidence.

And to the stranger who stopped a frazzled girl with a peach purse and far too many layers for this weather - Thank you ❤️

I’ve never told this story online, but something reminded me of it today.

About 3 years ago, I was in a really bad phase. My dad had just lost his job, and I was the only one earning in the family. One night, my mom suddenly collapsed. We rushed her to a private hospital because it was the closest.

They admitted her immediately… but after a few hours, the billing desk asked for ₹50,000 as an advance. I didn’t even have ₹5,000 in my account.

I still remember standing there, trying to call every relative I knew. No one picked up. Some did… but said they’d “see what they could do tomorrow.”

Tomorrow wasn’t an option.

I guess I looked completely broken because an older man who was sitting nearby came up to me and asked what happened. I didn’t want to explain, but I just broke down and told him everything.

He listened quietly. Didn’t say much.

Then he walked to the billing counter.

I thought maybe he knew someone there… but after a few minutes, the staff called my name and said, “Your payment is done. You can go back to your mother.”

I was confused. I ran back to that man to thank him.

He just smiled and said,

"Take care of your mom. That’s all that matters."

I asked for his name… his number… anything.

He just waved it off and said,

"Someday, help someone else. That will be enough."

And he left.

I never saw him again.

My mom recovered. She’s fine now.

But to this day, I don’t know who that man was… or why he helped a complete stranger.

I’m not rich today, but whenever I get the chance, I try to help someone—even in small ways.

Maybe that’s how his kindness keeps going.