12 People On The Kindest Thing A Stranger Ever Said To Them

1. “I had this one really awful day at work where my boss chewed me out in front of three of my coworkers and it was so embarrassing. So I went into the bathroom to have a good cry and then I went to the coffee place next door to get a pick-me-up. You could tell I had just been crying because my face was all red and people were looking at me. When they called my name and I went to grab my coffee, the barista had also written ‘Hang in there’ with a smiley face on my cup and I think that was the only reason I was honestly able to walk back into my office without crying again. So technically she didn’t say it to me, but having it in writing was even better. I kept the cup next to my keyboard all day.”

-Dawn, 29

2. “When I was in a dressing room debating on a pair of pants, the clerk whispered to me not to buy them because she had a pair and the quality wasn’t that good. Just the fact that she risked getting in trouble or not getting a commission of some sort, I thought was really kind.”

-Carol, 42

3. “I was having a really bad ‘ugly day’ last winter, so I put on my favorite blue peacoat hoping it would perk me up. But that didn’t even work. But then I was in line at this food place on my lunch break and this woman went out of her way to come up to me to tell me how great it looked on me. It was so unexpected and nice that I almost cried.”

-Selma, 26

4. “I was at the security checkpoint at the airport and I handed my ID to the TSA guy and smiled at him and he told me I had a beautiful smile. Not in a creepy way or anything. I could tell he was just being genuinely nice. Made my whole morning.”

-Annalise, 22

5. “One time I was on an elevator with one other dude and I was in a crappy mood because it was only Tuesday and work was shitty that week. And when we stopped at his floor he randomly turned to me and said, ‘Have a nice day.’ It was totally casual and not a big deal. But I guess the fact that a random stranger was nice to me for no reason made that morning way better.”

-Nate, 27

6. “My first job ever was bagging groceries. And I was really nervous the first day and put a customer’s bread on the bottom of the bag and then squished it and it was super embarrassing. So someone went to grab her a new loaf and she proceeded to tell me about a bunch of dumb things she did when she worked in a movie theater and it made me laugh and feel a lot better, especially as a 15-year-old sensitive kid.”

-Jude, 34

7. “The first time I took my son on a plane he cried a lot and a lot of the passengers were getting annoyed and I felt so bad and helpless. But the middle-aged man next to me told me that my son was an angel compared to his two kids when he first took them on a plane and it really helped me to calm down a little bit.”

-Meg, 31

8. “I work in a high-end clothing store, so I’m used to people coming in and constantly turning their noses up at me. So one day while I was running the check-out line this woman was giving me a hard time because it was past the date of when we could accept her return (she waited like 4 months to do this and was still throwing a fit). So she was extremely rude to me and stormed out of the store. And then the next woman came up and said to me, ‘Some people just want to feel important by stepping on others.’ Instead of letting the previous customer upset me, this other lady and I laughed about it together and I went home that day in a great mood.”

-Irina, 23

9. “I was humming to myself at the drug store one time and didn’t realize anyone else was in the aisle and then all the sudden this dude out of nowhere told me I had ‘a killer voice.’ It was the last push I needed to finally get the guts to sign up for singing lessons, which I had wanted to do for three years.”

-Gavin, 26

10. “I took my two sons out to eat one night when their mom was out of town – it’s kind of like our fun tradition. And we just had a great time and were goofing around and stuff. And as we walked out afterwards an older gentleman at a table near the door tapped my arm and said, ‘You’re a great father.’ And then went back to eating his meal. I doubt my fathering abilities just about every other second, so that was such a wonderful thing to hear in that moment.”

-Evan, 36

11. “One time on the train on the way to work, the woman sitting next to me said, ‘Your outfit is to die for.’ And then smiled and got off at her stop. I never felt so confident walking into work.”

-Rebecah, 30

12.  “I get super bad anxiety when I fly. And one time the turbulence was so bad that I had to wake up the lady sleeping next to me and ask her to talk to me because I was so panicked I didn’t know what else to do. She was so sweet about it, told me not to worry, and then spent an hour telling me random funny stories about her family and her coworkers. I would not have mentally survived that flight without her talking to me.”

-Marie, 27