A couple years ago I was visiting Nashville and went out on Broadway. Around 1 a.m. I was way more dr*nk than I should have been. While getting into a taxi near the stadium I dropped my phone without realizing it.

I couldn’t even remember what hotel I was staying at. Eventually the taxi driver dropped me off somewhere and I ended up passing out in a parking lot next to a park. When I woke up, it wasn’t because I woke up on my own - a woman had found me and was waking me up. My shirt was missing, I could barely stand, and I was clearly a mess.

She was genuinely worried about me and actually started crying saying she didn’t want anything bad to happen to me. She even offered to drive me somewhere safe herself while we waited for help.

She called 911 and an officer eventually arrived. Instead of giving me a ticket for public intoxication or anything like that, he was incredibly patient with me. I told him I thought I was staying at a Hilton somewhere in Midtown but couldn’t remember which one, so he literally drove me to two different hotels until we found the right one. He even walked me up to my room to make sure I got inside safely.

Then I found out something else that had happened while all of this was going on.

A group of guys had found my phone where I dropped it earlier that night. They used Siri to call my mom, who contacted my friend that I had been out with. He met up with them and they gave him my phone back. My ID and debit card were in the phone case, so without them I probably wouldn’t have even been able to get home.

I was a complete disaster that night, but multiple strangers made sure I got home safe.

I’m a 24-year-old white guy, and every single person who helped me that night - the woman who woke me up, the officer who made sure I got to my hotel, and the guys who returned my phone - were Black.

I hope stories like this help break the stereotypes that some people still carry. That night I was just surrounded by good people looking out for someone who clearly needed it.