The stranger who changed your day, or your year, without ever knowing it

[StringTheory51]

A warmer thread for the middle of the week. Nearly everyone carries at least one memory of a stranger who altered their day, or occasionally their whole trajectory, through some small act they almost certainly never gave a second thought to, and those people can never be thanked, so let us thank them here instead

The small ones count as much as the large, the driver who let you in when you were already crying, the shop worker who was kind on your worst day, the person who returned the wallet, the passenger who said the exact right thing on a hard journey and got off at the next stop forever

The strange thing about these is the asymmetry, a moment that reshaped your day was a Tuesday afternoon they forgot by dinner, which means we are all doing this to each other constantly, handing out unremembered kindnesses and cruelties without ever knowing where they land

So tell us about yours, the anonymous benefactor of your life, and let the thread double as the thank you note that can never be delivered, and if it makes anyone a fraction kinder to a stranger this week then it did more than most threads manage

[WaveFunction74]

A bus driver twenty years ago waited and gently waved me on when I was running for a connection to a hospital, he will never know, I made it in time, I think about him more than he could imagine

[Delulu66]

The asymmetry point undid me, the idea that my worst day was someone else's forgettable Tuesday and their kindness was load bearing for me alone is a strange kind of lonely and beautiful at once

[Outlaw]

A woman in a supermarket queue quietly paid the gap when I was short and mortified as a skint student, told me to pass it on someday, I have passed it on many times, she started a small chain she never saw

[Warden]

The pass it on instruction is genius because it turns one kindness into an endless one, she is still doing good through you decades later

[Leo70]

A stranger complimented a piece of my writing at an open event when I was about to quit, one sentence, kept going, here I am, they have no idea they are responsible for everything after

[SwiftQuarry]

This is basically the compliment thread from a while back grown up and gone anonymous, and it is just as devastating

[Dragon36]

Cruel side of the asymmetry deserves a mention too, a stranger's throwaway unkindness once stuck with me for years while they forgot it instantly, we are careless with each other because we never see the landing

[Freya]

That is the sobering half, if a forgotten Tuesday can carry someone's kindness for decades it can carry the opposite, worth remembering next time we are short with a stranger having a worse day than us

[Thomas_69]

A taxi driver talked me through the worst night of my life for one twenty minute fare and I never got his name, if forums reached everyone I would find him, thank you wherever you are