Brighten Your Day

I'll never be able to tell any of my friends or family about this because I know that they'll tell me that I was scammed but I know that I wasn't.

It was the week before Christmas and I was flying home from Vegas on Southwest. I got to the airport early because my friend was leaving early and frankly, I was just ready to be gone. What I didn't realize was that Southwest doesn't allow you to check bags in more than like 3 (or 4, I can't remember) hours before your flight. So, I went up the stairs and was hanging out in a quiet area with my overpriced Starbucks when I was approached by 2 young men who couldn't have been older than 20. They were from Venezuela. They did not speak English. I do not speak Spanish. Luckily, the older of the two had a translation app on his phone. It turns out they were brothers and had come to Vegas for a job and the guy who had hired had turned out to be a POS, who worked them half to death that one week, then dumped them at the airport with no food, money, or plane ticket and all they wanted was someone to help them purchase tickets back to NYC. Luckily, the first Southwest employee I approached spoke Spanish and offered to help them.

I checked in my bags and was getting ready to head towards security when I saw the 2 young men still talking to the Southwest employee. One was crying. It turned out that they didn't have enough money to pay for the tickets back to NYC, because as we all know, what is Christmas without a little surge pricing? So I paid for 2 tickets so that these young men could go and be with their family back in NYC. I asked the Southwest employee to ask them if they had eaten and they apparently hadn't eaten in almost 2 days. The Southwest employee got them each some food vouchers but they still had a 12 hour flight to get home, so I also gave them the emergency money I carry in my wallet.

I don't care what people say. These young men were not scamming me. They needed someone to help them. I don't get the chance to do good like this and I feel grateful that I had the opportunity to help people who really needed it. One day, I hope that if I ever find myself in a situation this bad, that there will be someone to help me out.