The Beauty of Giving

"No one has ever become poor by giving." 

- Anne Frank

I was driving around after doing some errands the other day, and after a round-trip to Tampa and back with my girlfriend to see some friends, my gas tank had about sixty-five miles left in it. As everybody does, I headed to the gas station. Now, this isn’t your ordinary gas station—this is a Buc-ee’s. Buc-ee’s has about a hundred gas pumps. Yes, a hundred. When you go inside, it’s an event. Fresh food everywhere, workers everywhere, people everywhere. It also has the lowest gas price in the town of St. Augustine, hence why that was my destination.

With groceries in the back of my car and the thermometer on my front dash reading 67 degrees, I wanted to fill up my tank and head back home quickly. Inevitably, with all the people who storm into Buc-ee’s, there is a bit of traffic getting into the parking lot. I was so close to getting in, with only two cars ahead of me, the front car being a quirky looking van. The driver was just turned enough so that I could see the left side of his face from his driver side mirror. Distraught and tanned (even in January somehow), the man hit the gas hard and hightailed it into the parking lot. I thought, I wonder what his story is.

No more than two or three minutes later, I was parked at a gas pump. Luckily, it didn’t take me long to find one even with all the other cars there. I sprang out of my Jetta, took out my wallet, and quickly started pumping my gas. I did a quick stretch of my back and out of the corner of my eye I saw the man from the quirky van headed my way. Oh boy, I thought. What could he want?

First off—awful initial thought. Why do we get so defensive or uncomfortable when strangers approach? Why did I not want to make eye contact with him until the very last second, somehow hoping he would just disappear and leave me alone? No idea, but it’ll for sure be something I learn and grow from.

The man finally got so close it was impractical to keep avoiding him, so I finally focused my eyes on him as he proceeded towards me. He was wearing some beat down khaki pants and a short-sleeve shirt tucked into them. “I’m so sorry,” he started with, “is there any way you could fill up my little gas can I have here? I just need a gallon—even half a gallon is plenty to get me home.”

I paused, never being in a situation like this, and I took out my wallet. “Well,” I said, “I don’t have too much cash, but let me look.”

“No, I don’t need cash,” he insisted. “Just about a half gallon to get me home. That’s all.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, this is so embarrassing,” he confessed. 

And then something clicked for me: I don’t know this man's story. It was so easy to think he was lazy, didn’t have a job, or just did this type of thing all the time. But he was genuinely embarrassed. His head mostly stared at the ground and his eyes rarely met mine. What if he works two jobs? What if he had a big family at home and he was the sole supporter? What if he’s been working so hard to even find a job? I felt so remorseful for basically trying to avoid a conversation with him initially.

Before he could get anything else out, I told him, “I got you. Let me unscrew the can.” He helped me unscrew it, and I took the pump out of my car and plunged it into his can.

“Just trying to get till the first of the month,” he told me. “Almost there.”

Completely loose and unguarded now, I said, “Don’t worry about it at all. I got you.” 

I filled his probably two-gallon gas can to the top, and afterward he was extremely thankful. He headed back to his van and I put the pump back into my car. Shortly after, he took off, presumably headed home. I thought, how easy was that? To help someone who was in a bit of need. It cost me, what, six extra dollars? 

I surely hope this doesn’t appear like I’m sharing for my benefit, rather than to show that something so small can go such a long way in other people’s lives. And like the saying goes: You never really know what is going on in someone’s life. Help that neighbor out. Pay for that person’s coffee. Give a smile to that stranger. Hold the door open for that elderly man. Like my Mom’s favorite saying: “Be Kind.”

Life is simple; we make it complicated. Help each other out.

Thanks for reading. Pay it forward.