karen & the sketchbook

when u get mad at me this is who ur getting mad at

“I am a different person to different people. Annoying to one. Talented to another. Quiet to a few. Unknown to a lot. But who am I, to me?”

was crying to a friend at a bar about leaving my academic program and this random woman came up to me and was like, “is it about a boy? tell me where he is. i’ll beat his ass.” and i was like omg no you’re so kind but it’s much weirder than that, i recently quit academia and i’m feeling extremely conflicted about it. she was nice but i fully expected her to leave because that’s a very niche thing and like hey, she was hanging out with her friends.

The last time I was in the hospital to stay in. There was a lady in my ward who, when she overheard me talking to the doctor about Judaism, sat and woke up whenever I did and told me stories about her family and how they celebrated different Jewish holidays. She held my hand when I had to have different IVs.

Last semester, I had a science teacher who played music before class. I asked her what the name of the song was, and along with giving me the title, she also gave me the whole playlist where the song was from. It also had other songs she played before.

The night before I left my study abroad in London, I ended up in the ER with a UTI. That was bad enough, but the real issue I was struggling with was that I was stressed to the max about how I was going to get to the airport the next morning, because the tube maps were still confusing to someone as directionally challenged as I am, and heaving suitcases up and down the stairs in the tube stations was difficult. This is relevant because, in the 6 or so hours that I spent in the waiting room for my test results, I befriended an elderly couple that was also there, and it turns out that their son was a cab driver. They promised me that he would be waiting outside my flat the next morning to take me to the airport. And you know what? He was. I got to the airport with time to spare and he helped me with my luggage and everything.

Kindness is even in the little gestures! So often strangers will see someone taking a photo or selfie of friends and offer to take it for them. People will hold open a door out of courtesy, wish you well when you sneeze, leave room for you while driving, and cut in line at a store.