Yesterday I didn’t move an inch. It rained pretty much all day and I just sat by the Truck Stop for a total of 15 hours in hopes of getting a ride that would get me west towards Tallahassee or Pensacola and save me many days of walking, but that never happened. The people that were willing to take me were not going in that direction and the ones who were going in that direction were not willing to take me. lol
As always many people took care of me and without me asking bought me and gave me food and at least 4 times people offered to give me money which I kindly declined because as many of you already know I am doing this journey with zero money in my pockets and without accepting money from others. However, the highlight of the day didn’t come until late at night when I started a brief conversation with one of the employees at the gas station who after hearing about my journey thought that I was crazy for doing what I am doing and my answer to him was “I am crazy about humanity and the world needs healing”. He then immediately apologized and said “you are right! please excuse my *fat ass* I was just being funny”. And hearing him say those words really impacted me because him referring to himself as being a *fat ass* was a reflection of how society has cruelly labeled him.
However, he then asked me if I had eaten anything and if I wanted to take a hot shower, I wasn’t really hungry as I had just eaten some donuts but the shower offer sounded really good to me so I said yes, he then asked me to come with him and we went inside the gas station where he paid for my shower out of his own pocket ($12 to $15) and handed me a bag of food too. Why do I say that this was the highlight of my day? For two reasons..
1. Because he was an employee at a gas station in a very small town and therefore he was probably making about minimum wage which for the state of Florida is only $8.49 per hour (one of the lowest in the country) yet, he paid for my food and shower with his own money, meaning his random act of kindness had cost him at least 2 hours of hard work, yet he did it with nothing but a smile on his face.
2. By him calling himself a *fat ass* made me realize how we stigmatize people for how they look and how we make them feel inferior, how we destroy their self esteem simply because they don’t fit a specific prototype or because they don’t look like us.
I am no exception, I have discriminated against others for a long time, I was arrogant, conceited, egocentric and felt that I 16was above others simply because I thought I looked better than them. Not understanding that inner beauty was a million times more important than how we look on the outside. I would always try to post for pictures and would never smile simply because I didn’t like the way I looked when I smiled and to me looking “hot and sexy” was more important than to look happy and genuine.
Living in Miami Beach has taught me something that Bob Marley once said; “Some people are so poor that all they have is money”. Because ever since I embarked on this journey my vanity has been fading away by the day, I went from getting a pedicure done from time to time to having my feet destroyed, from having a well taken care skin to looking much older, from having a fit body to being extremely skinny, I went from looking charm and wearing expensive clothes and living a fancy lifestyle to looking like a homeless person with literally zero money in my pocket, but most of all I went from wanting to be who I was not, to becoming the perfect being that I am today. ❤🌟
Apr 16, 2020, 9:34 AM