People are nice all the time!
Like any other drug addled, baggy trousered, SNES playing, divorced of parent, child of the 90's, I have on occassion been a veritable train wreck of depression. On reflection, my life's not been a hard one, Churchill would be turning in his grave etc, but of course that's not what it's about. All I know is I think about things differently when I'm 'bad', to when I'm 'good'.

So these times come and go. The story is set during a definite down time. A real long one in fact, that was exacerbated by splitting up from a long term girlfriend, and being in a relationship with another girl for all the wrong reasons. The locale was uni, my first year.

Come the second year, and I learn that current ladyfriend has fermented a fruity hatred of me over the summer (during which we DIDN'T EVEN SPEAK - a stunning result even by my standards). The fun bit is we decided on housing the year prior, so a month in and I'm kinda deciding that the tension is rather more than I can bear. I decide on a MANLY and NON-COWARDLY course of action - buy a one way ticket to America and scarper with my student loan.

The nice is about to happen!

I return home to take stock (if by 'take' I mean get, and by 'stock' I mean pissed). A flight is booked, I go out the night before to say farewells to pals. Incredibly (even by my standards blah blah), I think taking my passport out would be a profitable idea. It may well of been! Had I not done cartwheels. WEEEEE I went, WEEEEE! BOOOOO I went next morning, discovering my passport had taken to gravity with aplomb, and fucked off out of my pocket. Morning of flight. Worried. Mum suggests the police! 'Bollocks' says I. You'd have to be some kind of LOSER to do something as well intentioned as...oh.
Nice thing #1 - lady hands in my passport to police.

I'm at the airport, I am SO CLOSE to escaping, but I am silly. Feck it, I don't even have standards. I let slip I am a dual citizen. I only have my Brit passport. I am denied travel. If my emotional state was in a box, it would've had 'fragile' and 'handle with care' stamped all over it...so I am ever grateful for my dad, who came straight away to pick me up (a 3 hour journey for him) - and rather than berate me for my evident stupidity (I hadn't really told anyone my full plans...), he helped me get an emergency passport and back to the airport.
Nice thing #2 - my dad goes above and beyond.

So we're off! And I am not entirely without plan - back in my aol messenger/spending aeons online phase, I befriended two improbably nice twins, who I chatted with on and off for a few years. The day I thought of my plan, I messaged them (fairly out the blue at the time) asking if I could stay with them - they message back the very next day saying that's fine. So that's what I did! I went to their house in New Jersey, where the twins (P and K) lived with P's boyfriend, R.

I've been re-writing this next paragraph for a while. I dont know how best to put what they did for me, my appreciation of it. It won't sound like much, but it meant the world. The girls drove me everywhere, cooked for me, lent me money, food, gave me a home, not just somewhere to sleep...R got me a job, woke me up when I was late for work, got stoned and watched Monty Python with me, and taught me a lot about faith. Mainly, they showed me a group of people who loved each other, who were kind and compassionate. They were (are I'm sure!) really really really beautiful people, and I don't know how to put it any other way. For me? I felt calm, in my head, which is a big deal. I woke up happy. I didn't smoke as much, drink as much, I slept normally. I got my faith back.
Nice thing #3 - New Jersey kids take in a stray.

I could cry now thinking back to it. I am not 'cured', I still feel down sometimes, but I have something. A gift. See I wanted to put lots of things, cos I'm not sure you can quantify 'nicest'. All the above are nice acts, and while some are 'bigger' acts than others, each of them is simply a case of someone putting others ahead of themselves - the intention is always the same. Which is kinda lovely. And that is my gift, their acts of kindness see. When I think my dad's being a bit of a cretin, I remind myself what he would do for me. When I despair over a lack of community and helpfulness in our society, I think of the lady going out of her way for me. And when I can't sleep, and I'm hot and twitchy, and my mind just races races, I think of the house in New Jersey by the beach. And it works. And cos it works, we need to go out and give some nice back. This is what I try to do.
(bacontrout got ska, Sat 4 Oct 2008, 14:06, 2 replies)

Thank you
For writing that :)
( warmfuzzies Isn't here, Sat 4 Oct 2008, 21:53, closed)

I enjoyed that
*click*
(Sundayturkey has the biggest mug of tea, Sat 4 Oct 2008, 22:27, closed)