Writer: Mariam Hisham
Editor: Doaa Saady
I woke up gasping for air. All I could ever remember is yesterday. Yesterday was the worst day of my life. My best friend and I fought and we aren’t friends anymore. That’s all I could remember. I didn’t tell my mom about it because she’ll want to talk about it, and I have no energy to talk about it. So I just went directly to bed telling her that I’m not hungry.
I looked at the clock on my desk. It’s 7:32 in the morning; I have to go to school. Despite that, I have no energy to go, but I have to so my mom won’t think anything is wrong. I unlocked my phone, finding a “daily reminder” post on my timeline.
If you’re sad, make a stranger’s day.
I sighed, I usually don’t believe in those signs, but I don’t know why I was so attracted to it. I tried ignoring it and went to check my Instagram feed and I found the same post again! Fine then, we’ll see if that will work, I thought sarcastically. My mom made me breakfast. “Is everything okay sweetie?”, She asked as I was staring. “Yes mom, everything is fine,” I said with a smile.
I went out and decided to walk to school so I could find that stranger that could make my life better. On my way, I decided to stop by Starbucks to get my coffee. “Good morning!” I said to the barista and gave him my order. He didn’t look sad. I took a look around me; on the farthest table, there was a boy around my age or maybe younger. I can tell from here that he’s trying so hard to hold back his tears. Trust me stranger, me too.
Without having a second thought, I rushed to his table even though I’m introverted. “Hi there,” I said. His red eyes looked at me and stared at me for a while. “Hi?” He said and looked away. “Okay, you must be thinking who is that crazy person who came by to say hi to someone who’s screaming leave me alone right? We’ll let me tell you I had the worst day yesterday and two posts popped on my feed about making a stranger happy to make my life somehow magically better, and so, here I am” I took my breath and he suddenly laughed.
He kept laughing for about a minute and I couldn’t help but laugh too. “Okay, why are you laughing right now?” I said. “Well you can’t blame me you laughed too,” he said with a smile. “Sit down” he offered. So I did. “Well, believe it or not, I’m the one who wrote the daily thought for the page today,” he said. “Oh my god, it was you!” I said. He nodded. We talked for a while and I ordered him a coffee. Before I go, we exchanged numbers and said we’re hanging out tonight.
I sighed in relief as I was getting out, well making him happy didn’t magically make me better. But seeing him laughing and happy made me happy. That made me thinkthat sometimes what we need the most we need to give it. So I did. So you should if you’re reading this right now. Have a nice day!
