When I first created this goal, I thought it would be to track my own random acts of kindness. But last night as I was traveling from my home city back to my current work assignment, I witnessed a random act of kindness on my flight.
When I approached my row, I noticed that someone was sitting in the window seat, yet I was very thankful to have an aisle seat (more on my newfound claustrophobia another time!). I was very hopeful that the middle seat would stay unoccupied for a little extra room and allowing me not to feel obligated to talk to the person sitting next to me.
After a several minutes passed I heard a woman say 'That's your seat and I will be sitting here.' I looked up to find a mother and her son. The boy was going to sit in the seat next to me and the mother was going to the middle seat in the row ahead of us. As I began to rise to let him slide into his seat, the passenger sitting in the window seat asked the mother 'How can I help? Would you like to take my seat so you two can sit together?' The mother seemed very appreciative of the offer and accepted. I thought 'Wow that was pretty awesome of the passenger to give up her window seat in order to take a middle seat.' The Flight Attendant noticed the same thing and said 'That was very kind of you.'
Several more minutes passed and the Flight Attendant returned to the passenger that had given up her seat. Although I could not hear what was being said, I soon figured it out…there was an extra seat in First Class and the Flight Attendant was allowing the passenger to move there! In one night I had witnessed TWO random acts of kindness by people that didn't have to do what they did. It also made me realize that the act of being kind can be (and should be!) contagious!!!
