Two come to mind.

College. There was a platter of leftover bagels on a table outside one of the classrooms. Looked like the students had had their bagels and were now in the lecture hall learning, with bagels. No one else was around. I went to pick one up and this lady comes bustling over and says “they’re not for you!!”. She picked up the platter of leftover bagels and took the whole thing into her office down the hall. Really important to save $2 worth of bagels from my thieving appetite, I guess.

I was doing a cross country road trip in my youth. We stopped at some gas station in like Missouri, and I chatted with the guy working the counter. He was probably in his late 30s, early 40s. I told him about how me and my friends were doing a summer road trip. He got a little faraway look and said he’d love to do that, to travel with friends. I thought about being fuck-it spontaneous and telling him to quit his shit job and come with us, but his vibe was a little off. I wonder if he ever traveled.

Saw a girl walking across campus texting, and she was glued to her phone texting or whatever. I also remember she was in Ugg boots, they were in their hay day, this was like 2011. Anyway she fully inadvertently kicked a squirrel while walking and didn’t notice. Squirrel bolted away, I feel like I was the only one who noticed

I have a few but this is the first one that comes to mind. I was visiting New Zealand. I was in a grocery store and asked where the bathroom was. I was pointed in a general direction and headed to the door I calculated as the correct one. When I opened it there was kind of a foyer before the bathroom proper. A woman was coming out. I’m male so I stopped and asked if I was in the wrong bathroom. She stopped and looked around the bathroom to figure it out for a few seconds and finally just sort of gave up and said, “oh, who cares.”

Coming from a country (US) that was actively trying to dictate where trans people could or couldn’t pee, I sort of loved her in that moment for cutting through the bullshit.

I was sitting outside my college lecture in the hallway waiting for the professor to come in and unlock the door.

A rando professor I never talked to or met before comes walking by and as they pass me, they say out loud “you shouldn’t think too much, it’s not worth it” and as he finishes saying that, I realize he’s talking to me and look at him. Our eyes make contact briefly as he’s walking but then he just turns forward going primus knows where down the hall.

I was so dumbstruck, didn’t know what to say. I was already feeling like shit that day and that honestly both made me feel worse but also made me feel seen. Nobody has ever really cared enough to call me out like that and so that memory has always lived rent free in my head.

Suffice to say, I didn’t take the dude’s advice. As an introvert, I think I do internalize a bit much to the point where it feels like I’m suffocating, but I try not to let my anxiety take over all the time.

It was a calm summer night. My brother, his girlfriend, and I were in the city, walking under the streetlight.

My brother had just bought a full-sensor camera that took amazing pictures at night. To try it out, we decided to walk around the city, talking and occasionally pointing at things to take pictures of.

As we were walking, there was a similar group walking in front of us. It was two guys and a gal. They were in their 20s or 30s.

At some point, the strangers did something unusual, something light-hearted. They giggled and moved to the curbside. They hunched over and playfully hid behind a car.

My brother saw this and immediately started to take pictures.

As we saw the scene, we realized who they were hiding from: an older couple that was walking toward us all (my group and the strange group).

My group realized what was going to happen: the strange (and giggly) group would surprise the couple.

My group slowed down a bit, and we just let the scene play out. Surely enough, when the couple was close enough, the giggly and hidden group jumped and surprised the couple.

The street suddenly got filled with laughter. Smiles. Kisses. Hugs. Eyes lovingly looking at each other. It was such a heart-warming sight.

It was obvious they loved each other and hadn’t seen each other for a long time. I don’t know for sure, but I think the hiding group was the children of the older couple. A part of me thinks this was the first time in half a decade that the whole family could be together.

As we walked past them, I told my brother that all of the strangers would probably like to look at the pictures.

He walked up to them, briefly interrupting their greeting. He lifted his camera and showed them a picture. They looked at the camera and huddled around it. They were very happy.

They asked if my brother could send the pictures, to which my brother accepted, of course. They exchanged contact details and thanked my brother.

We all wished each other a good night, and my group resumed our night walk through the city. I imagine the other group laughed a bit more and started catching up.

Today, years later, I am still awed at this experience. It gives me goosebumps and gets me teary-eyed. It was so lucky and beautiful.

So, so many.

The girl who was attracted to me at my first telemarketing job. I joked about someone from out training class who got a donation before me “Well that bitch.” All interest went away, and deservedly so.

The kid I talked to at a bus station when I was in my early 20s. The station was packed, and he was sobbing.

I went over and asked what was wrong. He said a toothache, but that didn’t seem likely to be true to me.

At any rate, following that, three adults came and asked me what was wrong with the kid. I was the only one to think to ask.

Over a decade later, there was an underage girl flirting with college guys next door. She was probably 13 at the time.

I was friends with the guys though I was older. Parties, etc, and eventually a keeper.

Years later I found out someone was assaulted (raped, probably a train) after passing out at that party. Very few details confirmed to me, but in my heart I know it was that girl.

I don’t have names, evidence, anything at all that would be helpful. That is the worst one for me. Even if I knew her name, I could not support her in any way, assuming I am even correct that it was her, or even that anything happened. I am not even in touch with any of them. This was over twenty years ago.

This fire fighter I met at Occupy Wall Street. He was a first responder during 911, one of the few from his house that was still alive then. He suffered injuries and was unable to continue as a fire fighter. He had just been fired from his job as a toll booth operator because of his 911 injuries.

I often wonder if he is still alive, and if he is how he is doing.

A random girl who asked me for a hug once when I was minding my own business walking home from school. We were both about to cross the street so we walked across the road hugging tightly.

It’s like a love story that never was. I hope she’s doing well wherever she is.

One time I accidentally locked my keys in my car at the gas station.

The guy at the pump next to mine noticed and rolled out a bunch of tools he had in his trunk, and showed me how to break into my own car.

Freshman in college, 30 years ago. Sitting in the student union having a burger at night. Some guy comes and talks to me for a while. We seem to get along. I don’t remember what we talked about. Then he leaves and says he was going to kill himself tonight but had a chat with me and decided not to.

I was in a Walgreens in Greenville, NC. There was a guy who looked remarkably like Gary Busey kneeling on the floor in a pile of talcum powder, grabbing fistfuls up and rubbing them under his nose and sniffing it loudly. I think it might have actually been Gary Busey.

In college, I worked in our theater department’s box office. My job mostly involved taking orders over the phone during the day and helping with the ticket window or concessions booth during nighttime shows, but occasionally we would get walk-up customers at the window during the day too. Mostly students and their parents or professors.

One day, two equally short and equally pot-bellied men walked up to the window. Clearly father and son - one looked to be in his 70s and the other in his 40s. They were dressed like a couple characters out of a mob movie - fedoras, sunglasses, gold rings, the works. And they spoke like it too. When it came time to pay for their tickets, the younger guy whipped out a HUGE roll of bills. If it weren’t a random weekday morning and they weren’t clearly related, I would have sworn they were doing a bit or method acting. I still wonder who they were and why they were going to see a college production of Legally Blonde in suburban Chicago.

I was working in a grocery store and a customer told me I looked like a Russian revolutionary. He then clarified it was a good thing. That was close to 20 years ago and I’ve still have no idea what revolutionist I looked like, but I do still wonder.

I was at a hotel bar and noticed a few men look the same way, I followed their gaze to make eye contact with a striking young woman who had just walked in. She smiled at me and walked over to chat me up.

Now, I realized as many of you may have guessed, that she was working. And I let her know my name wasn’t john as politely as I could. But she looked at all the dudes in that room and decided she’d hate to fuck me the least, and it’s one of the best complements I’ve ever gotten.

The ones that never offered me free drugs in the street.