Good Deeds

I was going to wait and write this tomorrow as I am super tired, Wednesdays are my longest days starting at 8am and ending at 11pm. But of course I’m restless and will continue to be so until this is completed so here goes nothing.


Today shortly after I got to work I noticed an iphone4 sitting on the counter in the photolab. I assumed it belonged to a coworker until Kevin (a guy who works in the photolab) told me that it was left by a customer earlier in the day. I asked if anyone tried to find the owner of the phone and he said “no I don’t know how...we afterall do have their phone.” I thought about it for a moment and then grabbed the phone and went through the contacts. I know the feeling of losing an iphone and its not a good one! I didn’t have to search long until I found one labeled “mom.” I told Kevin I was going to text the owners mom and tell her I have their child’s phone...Kevin laughed at me but it was a better idea than just letting the phone sit there all day.

So I texted the mom and said something like “This is Samantha from Walgreen’s, I think I have your child’s phone..here is our store number please have them come in and claim it.” I kid you not, not even 2 minutes later the store’s phone was ringing and it was for me...and on the other line was an exceedingly thankful mother. She explained to me that it was her daughter’s phone and that she seems to lose it a lot but its normally a lot more difficult to track down. She thanked me for my honesty and for trying to find its owner and then told me I was the smartest girl she knew for thinking to text her about it. (I highly doubt I’m the smartest person she knows...I’m not that smart. I was just doing what I’d want someone to do if I lost my iphone) She said that she’d try to contact some of her daughter’s friends to let her daughter know about the phone. I don’t know how it came up but she explained to me that her daughter was member of Kappa Kappa Gamma...I told the mom that I was also a Kappa and although I’ve never met her daughter (I’m graduated) I’d be happy to drop it off at the sorority house on my way home if she wasn’t able to reach her...Talk about going above and beyond for a customer. I’d try to find the owner for any phone but I’d probably only deliver it to a sister :)

So anyways..I did my good Samaritan deed for the day and I felt really good about it. It acually made my day. 

Later, a guy came in and was purchasing some vitamins...he said he was under the impression that they were buy 1 get 1 free and wanted to make sure they were on sale. I rang up the items to find out that only one was ringing on sale. I told him that and he said “well what does that mean?”...I looked at him for a moment picked up the bottles and said “well it means this one is on sale and this one isn’t” hahahaha ooops. I apologized for the sarcasm and then gave him the explanation he wanted. He decided to go ahead and get both of them and left. (sorry this is getting long..that wasn’t relevant I just thought it was a funny mistake of mine)---but i do have a point keep reading.

Well not even 5 minutes later he came back into the store and got back in my line...I thought maybe he decided he didn’t need both bottles afterall and was going to return one, but to my surprise he placed two pieces of string cheese on the counter. I said something like “interesting selection, forget your snack?” and he said “No actually I’m getting this for the homeless man outside. He asked me for it and I thought why not.” This blew my mind, this guy was a nice guy doing a nice thing for another person. I told him that its nice to see people be good Samaritans and that I think everyone should make an effort to do at least one good deed for another person each day. I told him how I returned a cell phone earlier and felt really good about it. Then the customer behind the string cheese kid said “I agree with you! I paid for someone’s parking today” wow..just wow. There are still good people out there.

So I think I lied...i don’t think there is a point to this blog other than it feels really good to do a good deed for someone else. And when someone does a good deed for us, instead of overly thanking them...thank them kindly once and then pay it forward! Do another good deed for someone else who may need your help. That to me is the best thank you gift. Because the owner of this iphone is a member of my sorority I’m going to ask her to pay it forward. I didn’t think about it in the store but I have the opportunity to ask her to now. Just think about what the world would be like if everyone paid it forward. Returning a cell phone, buying string cheese for the homeless, and paying for someones parking may seem small but it made someone else's life that much easier. Go out of your way to do something nice for someone today...I promise you’ll feel really good about it. I know I did :)