My story today stems from me stumbling on a letter that I wrote but never delivered, so I thought I would share, not the letter itself, but the reason why I wrote it. This story took place near my 29th birthday. Every single year I treat myself to an early birthday gift and buy the newest Call of Duty which gets released on about the 5th of November. I always make sure to pre-order the game and pick it up whenever I am ready. This particular year’s release was Call of Duty: Ghosts, which I really wasn’t excited for and decided that I would not even get unless I really needed the distraction.
That being said, on the 4th of November as my car sat alone in my driveway someone shattered my car window and stole my wallet. Now, I don’t know if you have ever had your wallet (or purse) stolen, but it is a devastating feeling. Not only did I have to pay for the window, wallet, new license and new student ID but there were countless things in there that were really only valuable to me… one of those was the pre-ordered receipt for the game. Now, that was only worth $5.00, but it was my claim to that money. Hell, I would have paid them cash to just take the credit cards and leave the actual wallet.
Needless to say, I was very sad. For 5 days I moped around defeated… it was one of those weeks where everything that could go wrong did. I knew then that if I was ever going to buy the game this week was the perfect time. So, I rummaged through my house to find $60.00 cash and drove to GameStop. Worn out, I was feeling anxious at the thought of explaining that I did not have my receipt for the pre-ordered game because it was in my wallet which was stolen… I am sure they have heard that one before.
I walked in already exhausted and walked up to the counter. I told him that I was there to pick up my game and gave him my name. He handed me the game and the receipt. I stood there confused with the cash still in my hand. He just stared at me with a grin on his face. Finally after about 15 seconds I asked “So, it’s what? $55.00?” as I extended my hand to give him the cash. He smiled at me and said “It is all taken care of.” I stared at him confused and told him “I don’t understand… What do I owe you?” Again he smiled at me and said “You don’t owe us anything, have a good time.” Then the person next to him said “Happy Birthday Man.”
Now, at this point I should clarify that I was worn out and very depressed about all the bad that had hit me in that last week. So, when he said that, I took it as someone saying here is a gift… Not as a real happy birthday, since my birthday was 2 weeks away and I had never seen this man before in my life.
I placed my hand over my face and thought to myself ‘it’s fine, I will just take it, maybe I paid for it all in full when I pre-ordered it. I will just get home to my computer and check my bank account for the past transaction and if I owe them I will just return to pay for it… but that is just more of a pain in my neck, more time out of my day, more gas from my tank… but I can’t deal with this tonight.’
One last time I extended the cash out to him in the same way that a child might try to give a carrot to a horse. He put his hands up, clearly not willing to take my money. So I grabbed the game and receipt, thanked them both and walked out.
On my way home I tried to call my girlfriend, just to have someone help me get out of my own head. However, she did not answer her phone. I remember thinking “F*** THIS DAY!!!” as I drove home in silence.
About 10 minutes later she called me back and asked me how my day was. She knew I was sad when I said nothing at all. She then asked “Did anything fun happen today?” I responded with a short “no.” She then said “Ah, you’re no fun to surprise.” At that moment all the missing pieces came together… She had paid for the game, she had told them it was my birthday and she didn’t answer because she was waiting for me to get home… I simply said “I can’t believe I missed all of that… Thank you.”
Now, my girlfriend deserves all the praise for this event, especially because I am not an easy person to surprise and I made sure to tell her how wonderful all of that made me feel, but I have to give some props to those guys at GameStop… They had no idea what my girlfriends deed meant to me. I was feeling so down on myself and when life looked so dark and mean I was reminded that there are people who care about me and that there are strangers in the world who are willing to go out of their way to make someone feel good.
It is interesting that when something bad happens, we only think of ourselves… Or perhaps that is just me.
As Random As Random Gets 