What I mean by "generosity in small portions" is:
What is one act the you have down for a person or a person has done for you that has been so small, but yet so big all at the same time?
I have been really lucky to experience this more than once in my life.
In September 2007, my life made a huge change. I was a freshmen in college at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Not only was I away from home, at a new school, starting a new phase in my life, but I also had a new job. Seems insignificant to all the other changes in my life, right? I spent the summer working at Wal-Mart close to home before I made my move into the dorms. Luckily, I was able transfer to a Wal-Mart close to school and work on the weekends. At the time, I was thankful to have a job immediately because it was going to save me the effort of searching along with hundreds of other students.
There has never been a job that I have despised as much as I despised this one in my life. This was definitely not even close to being my first job since I had been working at farms since I was in seventh grade. My co-workers were not friendly, I disliked the hours I worked, the job prevented me from going home on the weekends to see my family, and I felt that only 10% of the customers were nice (and no, I am not exaggerating). As a result, the days were long and the pay checks never felt worth it.
On my third weekend of working there, a lady came to my check out lane. She was purchasing a lot of snacks as well as my most favorite candy in the world: Milk Duds. I made a comment about how Milk Duds were my favorite candy. She then told me how her daughter had just started her freshmen year of college in Madison and asked if I was in school. I told her how I was in the same boat as her daughter and had just started myself. She explained to me how she missed her daughter and that she had planned to send her a care package because she was feeling homesick. We talked quite a bit about how I was feeling with college, being away from home, and how I missed my mom for nearly 10 minutes because I had no line of customers at the time. Once she left, I did not think much of the situation, other than the fact that I was thankful to have experienced a kind and caring customer that early in my day.
Nearly four hours later, the store was swamped with customers and it became quite the routine of greeting, sliding purchases across the scanner, and making change for customers. I looked up to greet the next customer in line during an hour rush and it was the woman I chatted with earlier. She was purchasing one box of Milk Duds and I joked and said, "Didn't you buy enough the first time through?" She simply smiled at me and said, "No" as she paid for her purchase. She grabbed the Milk Duds and handed them right back to me and said, "These are for you, I hope you enjoy them." I was so shocked by her act of generosity that I nearly started crying. She told me she appreciated our conversation earlier and could not stop thinking about me as her day carried on. All I could muster to say to her was, "Thank you, I cannot tell you how much it means to me that you did this."
Her generosity was small. Her impact was big. I will never forget what she did for me that day.
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