I’m writing this Karri-hour post on behalf of a friend – someone who didn’t know Karri, but if he had, I feel like they would have been great friends. I was on the receiving end of this Karri-hour. I go to school in St. Catharines, which is great most of the time but sometimes is just too far away from home and the people there. The other night I was out downtown and ran into a friend from Guelph who had reached out to me and offered kind words this past month. We chatted for a bit and this brought back a wave of emotions, but I kept it together. Later that night I found myself alone, trying to get a hold of a roommate I couldn’t find when I ran into a classmate I hadn’t seen since the previous year. I guess he could tell I was struggling because he said, “ok let’s go. I hate seeing people upset so by the end of the night you’re going to be smiling”. We
then proceeded onto phase 1 of the adventure: Smoke’s Poutine, which we ate in Pizza Pizza just to be different. After that he led the way to an Ale House where the bartender chose a house beer for us and we listened to live music and chatted with different groups of local people who, to be honest I wouldn’t have paid any attention to otherwise: a mother of 4 out for a beer at her favourite bar after a stressful week, a highschool teacher unwinding after his first week back etc. From here, we started to walk to a nearby park to see the stars clearly – all the while having the most hilarious conversation with a 3rd friend we picked up along the way (they talked, I listened and laughed just enjoying the moment). In the park, my friend hid a loonie in a crack in a fence post, just barely visible, because he said it would make someone else’s day when they found it. We left the park after seeing the stars and I headed home with a huge smile on my face.
I wanted to share this story, because as I was having an off night, someone lifted me up. This was someone who could have easily just passed by with a simple hello, but stopped to see how I was doing and then proceeded to take over an hour out of his night to cheer me up. It was a genuine act of kindness that I will soon be paying
forward.
Emma Porter
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