Just got a "Thank You" from a stranger

[MissMillie]

I work at a college.

I was just on my way to the cafeteria for a beverage, and on route a total stranger said hello, asked me how I was and then proceeded to thank me.

He then explained that despite never having been introduced, he had overheard me talking to someone, last year, about my gastric bypass surgery.

He told me that he had been mulling it over in his mind but was really afraid.

I guess whatever it was that I said, in the conversation he overheard, made him think that there may be something to the procedure.

(I imagine I said something about feeling younger, having more energy and being more active than I have in YEARS.)

Anyway, he had his GBS in May, and he's down 70+ lbs.

I told him not to let that be the end of taking care of himself. "Get good sleep, exercise, take your vitamins. Being smaller isn't the only ingredient to being healthy."

[Arugula Latte]

1. Wow. That is really cool.

I guess you never truly know how many people you've influenced in some way, eh?

:thumbsup:

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Outstanding. And good on you for being brave enough to take care of yourself as well.

This is why I try to be decent to everyone, except to the really indecent types (who are unable to understand "the mirror" is to get them to see their own behaviour and to change upon seeing how they actually look to others).

[Fleshdancer]

3. I love stories like this

It facinates me when conversations or small actions can have an impact on others when you least expect it. It's like that commercial for...um, I can't remember what it's for, but a man helps a mom by picking up the toy that her toddler dropped and someone else sees this and then does a kind act for someone else which is seen by someone else, etc. A "pay if foward" type thing.

We live in such a fast paced, lonely world and it's easy to forget that we do influence others by our actions and words every single day. It's up to us whether we want to be a positive or negative influence and it sounds like you chose to be a positive one.