Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Define Generosity

I would find myself very selfish if I didn't share this story. After my oral surgery the doctor said I needed to get a mouth guard so I called my dentist and it was $200. There's no way at this point that I can fork out $200 so I'm glad I just called. About a week later was the county fair which my work has a booth in, so one of my coworkers Jeremy called me and said, "There's a booth across from us that does mouth guards (as well as other things, mainly teeth whitening) and their cost is $75, do you want one?" I told him no, that was too much especially with Lance being in school, yada yada. He said, "Well name your price he said he'd do it for any price." I told him the most I could do right now is $25. Jeremy said there's no way that would ever happen and hung up but he called back about 5 minutes later and told me it's a deal, the teeth guy would do it for $25.

I got to the fair and met with the teeth guy, Andrew, who explained to me the procedure and made sure I understood the price was $25. He said that my other coworker, Rodney, who was standing there the whole time during this phone bartering between Andrew, Jeremy, and myself immediately pulled out his wallet and handed Andrew the $25. Andrew donated the remaining $25 so I could have a mouth guard to prevent future oral surgeries.

I immediately started crying because I was so touched and grateful for what they did. When you're a poor college student/family $25 might as well be $2500 and right then the money had nothing to with it, I was so overcome by their generosity and selflessness. I've never witnessed such an act of charity and benevolence before and I owe them a whole lot more than $25!!! Saying thank you is not enough, paying back the $25 is not enough, so I promise that not only will I do those two things but I'll also take $25 and give it in some way to someone else that needs it and hopefully it will mean all the difference in their lives as it has mine.

4 comments:

*LaUrA* said...

That is awesome! I am so glad you got your mouth guard...what awesome guys with kind hearts!

Tawni Williams said...

Oh that is amazing! It is always wonderful to hear of great people out there - course that just speaks of what goes around - you two are amazing people... you deserve it

T-P said...

I got a story for you to match, next time I see you.

Cassie said...

It was good to see you at the fair. The barber shop was awesome. How about we do a redbox sometime?