I love making people cry
I’m a single 45 year old female who has no kids, 2 nephews, a handful of amazing friends and a love of random acts of kindness. I’m also the type of person who LOVES doing her Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve! I shop for everyone and I always manage to get the perfect gift. I battle the hordes of people, searching for gifts (hordes of people who probably need a little pick-me-up).
I, in a previous life, worked retail. I know exactly what it is like to have to always be merry to those who passed through my register. Not everyone had a smile on their face though. So I decided about 15 years ago to make it my job to make 10 people cry on Chrismas Eve. Yes, I deliberately make 10 strangers burst into tears. And I love it!
While I’m shopping, I always purchase the following: 1 x $100 gift card and another 9 x $50 gift cards. Then after my shopping is done and loaded into my car, I go back into the jungle of shoppers, arm myself with a large cup of coffee and make people cry.
I walk around the shopping centre, purposely looking for people who probably can use a smile and a random act of kindness. When I see them, I know. I just know!
It could be the nanna at the checkout who obviously will be celebrating on her own, due to the single items she has on the belt. It could be the dad with the little girl who is begging him to take her to see Santa, sometimes it’s a worker behind the register who I can see just wants it all to be over.
With massive butterflies in my stomach, I approach my target. I simply excuse myself, look them in the eye, wish them a very Merry Christmas, give them my gift, turn around and walk away. I hear them calling out after me, sometimes running after me. Every single person to whom I have extended my gift have teared up. Even the big burly bikie looking dude with the tattoos who I just overheard on the phone telling someone he just couldn’t afford the chicken for Christmas dinner.
It honestly is nothing to me, $500. To someone else that $50 or $100 gift card means the difference between a lovely Christmas meal or leftovers. I’m no one special. I am not wealthy. But I can tell you this, after handing out the cards I’m richer than Bill Gates! To the world, you are just one person, but for a moment to one person you are the world. – baccgirl (reddit)