Stories to Inspire Hope

I think that when Loeb states, “other people’s stories can expand our view of the world,” he means a few different things. First, I think it is important to think about how the many negative stories we hear on the news, from friends, etc., all contribute to that overall looming feeling of cynicism that Loeb was talking about earlier in the book. Like he said, these negative stories tend to void citizens of hope, and to discourage them from trying to make a change. I think he means that not only is it important to inform people of the negative things that are happening around us, but that it is important to spread stories of good things that happen in order to spread hope and to encourage people to try to make a difference.

I think there’s this overall feeling in America right now that there is just really no point in trying because you will never be able to change the world. I think this is kind of missing the point. Any good thing you do, no matter how small, has the potential to really turn someone’s day around. When these sorts of efforts are consistent, this positive influence can only go further. I think the more people pay each other respect, and listen to what one another has to say, the more we will feel bonded to one another. The more we are bonded, the greater our responsibility to each other is. The greater our responsibility to each other is, the more people will band together to work for a common good.

When I was thinking of how to answer this question, I wasn’t sure what story to tell. It seems anything I could think of was too big or too small. But I think the size of the story is beside the point I was hoping to make. I think just a small story of human kindness can inspire hope within someone. So I will tell the story of a small act of kindness that happened a long time ago. It’s a story that I still remember as having a significant impact on my outlook of life.

Living across the country for high school, it wasn’t easy having to travel back and forth to visit my family every two months or so. I hate flying. I hate airports. I hate airplanes. There is NOTHING fun about airports to me, and they just generally put me in a very irritable mood. So you can imagine my discontent when I got off my connecting flight in Atlanta only to find out that I had only about 4 dollars left to buy myself dinner. Because airport food is so expensive it was SO frustrating trying to find anything for cheap that would hold me over for my next long flight. I finally found a place that had chicken nuggets for exactly 4 dollars, although I couldn’t afford them considering the fact that I didn’t have enough to pay for tax. When I asked the shy, frail Indian man behind the counter what I could get for less than $4, I am fairly sure he could sense the frustration in my voice (though I wasn’t rude). Right when I asked him he called out his co-worker from the back. These two people put together the money they were working to make in order to help me be able to pay for my dinner. They paid for a stranger’s dinner that came to their own restaurant to eat. Because I wasn’t expecting anyone to be willing to do that, much less the person working behind the counter, I was more taken aback than I expected. I felt in some way almost guilty for accepting their help, but I wasn’t sure what else to do. I made sure that the people working behind the counter were absolutely aware of my gratitude, and left the restaurant in a MUCH better mood. Something so seemingly trivial really challenged my views about people during a time when I was so irritable. Though the story may seem random and unimpressionable, this happened about 3 years ago and I still remember even what I was wearing, how much money I had, what the boy behind the counter looked like, and nearly everything about the situation.

My point is, that even though this story is so small, it has the potential to give someone hope, to inspire them to act kindly to their peers, or to show them that people really have an impact on the way that we view the world. I think that these small acts of kindness need not be forgotten, and should be drawn upon for inspiration in times of what may seem like hopelessness.