On the Kindness of Strangers

Last Friday, in a complete haze, I mistakenly left my wallet on the bus home. I went about the rest of my evening, until hours later, I had the realization that I didn't have my wallet and had been driving without a license. I went into a full-on panic, before calling the CTA Lost and Found, cancelling all of my credit cards, and asking my father to loan me some dough to get me through the weekend. I spent Saturday afternoon at the DMV getting a new driver's license. I spent the weekend making a list of the insurance cards, my library card, the countless irreplaceable knick nacks stashed in my wallet, counting my losses and wondering how I had been so darn careless.



And then came Monday.

On Monday I came into work with a fuzzy head and tired eyes. I told my coworkers that I was down on my luck, and so disappointed that my wallet was gone. My red message light was lit, I began to listen to the voice-mail and my heart started to pump more and more quickly as the message relayed that my wallet had been found and kept by a student at UIC. Everything was safe, they located me quite unexpectedly through my LinkedIn profile, and I could pick up my wallet as soon as possible.

I thought and thought - how lucky I am. Against all odds, in such a big place, all it took was the kindness of a stranger to find my wallet and make the effort to find me and reach out to me directly. How unexpected. Just after I'd angrily lost all hope in humanity - people came through. Chicago is a big city of strangers, but we are a community none-the-less. To the one who returned my wallet thank you for your honesty and compassion. You have restored my faith in humanity. I will never forget this.



To continue my good luck, my department had me purchase a pool of Lotto tickets. The winner is picked tonight, and the prize is (gasp) $360 million!! Wish me luck!