The Hopewell House

Dear Kind Boy,

Today was one of those stressful type of days. I had a lot on my plate and a lot I needed to get completed before 5pm. I had busy morning and a lot on my mind. The last thing I wanted to do was a college visit, but it was scheduled and I knew I could not back out of something I had already made a commitment to. It is hard sometimes going to your school mostly on the fact that I come from a Christian university. Sometimes your peers do not always have the nicest things today and sometimes they can be a bit judging. It's sometimes hard to sit at the table and pretend I do not hear the negative things people have to say. I hate it because I never once have pressured a student into attending our college and I have never bashed some one based upon their religion, preferences, or views. I have only tried to show compassion, love, and understanding but sometimes its hard when I sit hearing people the other end of the spectrum. But nonetheless, I see the potential in what I'm doing and once a month I make a commitment to go to the college and I sit there throughout the mocking and the ridicule. Today it was harder than usual, I felt alone and insecure and all I wanted to do was get back to my office. As I was coming down the stairs with my awkward rolling briefcase feeling flustered and ready to leave, you were coming up the staircase and looked over and saw that I was struggling. You simply looked at me and asked, can I take that down the stairs for you? (I'm pretty sure you had to ask twice, I was in shock) I looked over, smiled, but said I had it; you don't even realize how much better you made my day. What you didn't realize was that you were probably one of the few people in the last couple of months who genuinely looked at me and showed compassion as a complete stranger. You also did not know that a couple of weeks beforehand I had gone down those same stairs and dropped a whole box of pens all over the ground; that time I had been surrounded by a bunch of students and not one person had even stopped to help. It was slightly humiliating. You have no clue how much that small gesture completely turned around my day. It also was a reminder to me that there are still genuinely nice people out there. Thank you for making my day a hundred times better and helping me believe in humanity once again.

Yours Truly,

H.