A Random Act of Croissant

A Random Act of Croissant

6:42

Have you ever asked yourself, why does bad happen to me when I do so much good? Where’s my karma at? When am I finally gonna taste all that good everyone talks about? Has the universe forgotten me? Lately life have been tough, I have been asking all those questions too. To god, to the universe not that I’m religious or spiritual but there has to be good that I deserve too.

Today, on the 28th of July 2023, I spoke to a friend who went to culinary school to decide what to make for another friend who’s birthday was coming up. We brainstormed together for hours and hours and finally decided to make a fancy orange and chocolate cake that had multiple layers and was a little complex than the usual. I had most ingredients on hand but had to make a quick grocery run to get the rest. I went to Bulk Barn which for me is a food haven because of the number of products they carry. The best part you ask? You buy only as much as you need!!! Such a sustainable business. You can reduce so much wastage especially for those “once in a while” items that don’t have great shelf life. After getting most of my ingredients there, I was headed to my regular grocer to get diary items for the cake and a few other ingredients like oranges! Now you need to keep in mind this grocery run is on my everyday route from work to home. I usually take the bus in the morning and walk back home in the evening. I always see this one bakery which is mid point from Bulk Barn and my regular grocer - No Frills. The bakery, Cobs Bread is usually packed! I always see such a huge crowd inside the store. One other thing about me is I am curious and spend money sometimes on things I didn’t even know I needed. Surprisingly today, there was no crowd there so I went in to see what all the fuss was all about. I have been very conscious of what I eat so I’m definitely keeping my distance from bread. But I saw a huge stall categorized “healthy” and I knew that instant I was going in!

I walked in and couldn’t hold my eye on one item because there were so many and omg, how tempting. This was some bread specialty with varieties of bread, ingredients I had never even heard of. So fancy and so mesmerizing. The lady in the store was especially nice to me and asked me what I wanted and even recommended a few breads. We got talking (ahem, as usual, ahem) and she told me they recently opened up the place and have been receiving lots of love for their products. She pointed at one pizza slice which was vegan and said this is our best seller these days , they are usually the first to go. I mean, for a person like me this was a no brainer, what was I going to say no for? It’s PIZZA and it’s vegannnnn!!! There was no saying no! I definitely knew I was getting that. I then looked around at some of these beautiful breads and the scoring techniques on them, the colour and the most fascinating were the ingredients that went into these breads. She walked me through a few and I knew I had a lot of learning to do when it comes to bread making. Since the healthy section called out to me ever since I set my eye on them I asked her about a couple of things. She suggested two different breads one with some crunchy seed textures and the other was a plain healthy bread that was entirely made of healthy ingredients. I told her I generally do not eat bread but I’m very tempted to buy one so I will come back again and get the bread she said was made with some fancy ingredient I can’t remember the name of right now! She was super nice to me even though I only decided to buy the slice of pizza after that long informative conversation. She cashed me out and I made the payment while we continued talking. She told me they had an app and they do a point-system so you could grab a lot of free stuff as and when they become available to you and told me they also do special birthday goodies. I got super excited listening to that because yes, my birthday’s coming up! I instantly told her I’m definitely coming here on my birthday to grab my goodies. She said she couldn’t wait to see me more in the store, birthdays and otherwise. She quickly asked me then “if I were to give you something to take home with you today, what would you like?” For a second there, I thought I misheard her and she continued to ask me if I liked something sweet and if she could pack a chocolate croissant for me. I told her I’ve been watching my diet and as tempting as that chocolate croissant looked I think I should keep my distance from it. She continued asking me what else she could pack for me when I interrupted her and asked why did she decide to give me something for free today, I hadn’t even signed up on the app, to which she said “because you are such a lovely person” and thatttttt felt so good to hear. That was all I wanted to hear in such a long time now. It’s not like you do nice thing to hear everyone talk about it, you do it because you are a nice person. But when someone notices something like that about you and is able to communicate that to you in such a beautiful way, it means the world. She wasn’t shy or anything, one conversation made her think I was a nice person and she decided to send me home with a little something of MY CHOOSING! Even though I had to say no to the chocolate croissant I went for a plain croissant (like that made a huge difference, lol). She packed that for me and when k was walking out the store she told me to have a great weekend. I turned back, still overwhelmed about the whole thing and said, you definitely made it better! To which she literally, quiet LITERALLY jumped in joy and said “yayyy!”

I mean, the fact that she gave me a croissant that costed around $6 plus taxes for free in an economy where everything is super expensive meant the world to me. She didn’t have to give me that croissant, I would have still had a pleasant conversation and walked out but the fact that she did it anyway was super super super nice! My point being, no matter how much it feels like there aren’t nice people around, every once in a while someone will come your way and surprise you in ways you didn’t expect and reinstate all that faith in humanity! There’s so much good left in the world and I’d like to believe you will always stumble upon people who are just as nice as you, maybe not everyday but every once in a while.

Little did she know the impact one $6 croissant would have on me, i really hope she has a great evening that I made sure to wish her before I left the store! Thank you Stranger for letting me feel so grateful in this moment and feeling at the top of the world in the moment you packed that croissant for me. It meant everything to me. Experiences like these make me feel more alive than ever and maybe, just maybe life really is all worth it❤

July, 2023