Pay it forward
The most amazing thing just happened to me...
I was in the campus post office, trying to mail some things to my parents and my scholarship grantor. The total came to 190JPY, which is nothing, right? Well, of course, it turned out that I didn't have enough money. I'd left my big bills at home because I didn't want to carry so much money around, and then spent 320JPY buying the envelopes and some special composition paper for class (and another 240JPY earlier in the day on tea), and all I had left was 165JPY. (Ironically, I had just written in the letter to my parents that they didn't need to worry about my finances.) The woman was like "well, you could send just the letter to America," so, even though they were both important, I thought to do that.
Enter my saviour.
The young man behind me steps up and says, "How much does she need? 50JPY? I can pay it."
I was shocked.
And never have I been so frustrated with my language limitations. Finally, in English, I said, "I couldn't let you do that. It's very nice of you, but really, how would I ever pay you back?"
He said 50JPY was nothing, and all he asked was that I do the same if I ever saw someone else in trouble.
So I bowed and repeated "honto ni arigatou gozaimashita" [I'm really very grateful] over and over again. Yeah, maybe it was only 25-50JPY, but the gesture was... priceless. I waited to ask his name and thank him once more, and then I left in a state of dazed wonderment. I hope my face conveyed my gratitude and awe more than my words did.
I was in the campus post office, trying to mail some things to my parents and my scholarship grantor. The total came to 190JPY, which is nothing, right? Well, of course, it turned out that I didn't have enough money. I'd left my big bills at home because I didn't want to carry so much money around, and then spent 320JPY buying the envelopes and some special composition paper for class (and another 240JPY earlier in the day on tea), and all I had left was 165JPY. (Ironically, I had just written in the letter to my parents that they didn't need to worry about my finances.) The woman was like "well, you could send just the letter to America," so, even though they were both important, I thought to do that.
Enter my saviour.
The young man behind me steps up and says, "How much does she need? 50JPY? I can pay it."
I was shocked.
And never have I been so frustrated with my language limitations. Finally, in English, I said, "I couldn't let you do that. It's very nice of you, but really, how would I ever pay you back?"
He said 50JPY was nothing, and all he asked was that I do the same if I ever saw someone else in trouble.
So I bowed and repeated "honto ni arigatou gozaimashita" [I'm really very grateful] over and over again. Yeah, maybe it was only 25-50JPY, but the gesture was... priceless. I waited to ask his name and thank him once more, and then I left in a state of dazed wonderment. I hope my face conveyed my gratitude and awe more than my words did.
posted by Bibhatsu at 01:48
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