After my first year of university, my parents couldn’t pay for my flight back home in the summer (Toronto to El Salvador is roughly a thousand bucks), so I decided to go home with some money I had saved up. I only had $300 for transportation but with that I could pay a Greyhound from my town to Toronto, then a Megabus from Toronto to New York, a (shoddy) plane from New York to Guatemala and a bus from Guatemala to El Salvador. Aside from the $300, I only had about another $120 for food and other necessities. When I was about to get on the Greyhound to Toronto, my backpack tore open from the bottom. It was a Sunday morning and everything was closed. A very nice lady who asked me to watch her bag while she went to the bathroom saw that I was having some trouble with my backpack and asked me if I was okay. I told her my story and she was nice enough to give me a roll of duct tape to patch up my backpack for the time being. She also gave me $40 to buy some food when I got to Toronto. Before we parted ways, she said, “One day, a stranger’s kindness helped me. Just promise one day you will do the same.” I did. When I was on the plane to Guatemala, there was an awful thunderstorm. It was one of those cheap planes that are poorly built, and we had to stop in Orlando for about two hours. When we finally made it to Ft. Lauderdale, where I had to switch planes, I had missed my connection. The next flight was in two days and the company would not pay for the hotel. I was completely alone and barely had any money to pay for a hotel. I found a hotel that would cost me most of my money, so I took a shared taxi from the airport. I decided I might as well ask the driver if he knew any hotels cheaper than the one the airline suggested. He said he did, and the old lady I was sharing the cab with pitched in with some advice. They asked me what was wrong, why I was so distressed, and I told them. The lady was incredibly sweet; she reminded me of my grandma. Before she left the cab, she gave me $40. “God knows you need it more than I do,” she said. The driver was very nice as well; he found me a cheaper hotel and he charged me much less than I was due to pay. Silly as it may sound, the money those two women gave me saved my sorry ass. I had not planned to spend money on a hotel, so if I hadn’t had those extra $80 I would have starved. I can’t believe how lucky I was to find them in my journey. I hope one day I will be able to have such an impact on someone’s life.