A Lesson in Humanity: Unexpected Kindness in the Bustle of the City

When I was 17, one important chapter of my life came to an end. I finished school, passed all the exams, celebrated the prom and submitted my papers to different universities. I didn’t want to stay at my native town, because I thought I have nothing to do there. So, I worked hard to make my best and enter some metropolitan upscale university. What I actually did. I became a student of Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, one of the best in Europe and probably the best in our country.

That was a real success. It meant moving to the capital city, living on my own, having a new circle of acquaintances and a lot of opportunities. I was really inspired and excited then. Nevertheless, I was a bit scared of obscurity that waited me ahead and of all the realities and difficulties of living alone furthermore in a big city. My parents had the same feelings. They were really proud but they were sad to let me go.

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Nevertheless, I had to go.

So, when I moved it was hard. Everything was new and unknown. Especially the city. Kyiv turned to be a big busy city full of people day and night, like a swarm of bees. People were everywhere: in the streets, in the subway, in shopping malls. Crowd was everywhere. Always. That was strange and hard to get accustomed to. I had a feeling like it is some holiday and everyone went out to walk in the center.

Yes, but it was every single day. And what stroke me most were the people. All the people in Kyiv were constantly busy with their concerns, giving no attention to others. They didn’t stop to help if someone was in trouble, they thought only about themselves. Because it was a big city and there every man is for himself. This is the way I though until one situation happened that changed my opinion.

It was the first year of my studying and I was going home to my native town on weekends. I usually traveled by a night express train, since I had my lessons in the second shift. I hated those trips. It was late at night when it is cold in winter, when the subway trains went rarely like one in ten minutes and I had to carry all my stuff and push the people through trying to survive in the crowd.

So, once I was going through these usual circles of hell, and it happened so that all the central subway stations were closed for entrance and exit because of contamination by mines. That was a real shock for me. I started to panic because I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t use above-ground transport, so the way to railway was blocked for me. I was started to think how and where I would sleep in the railway together with the homeless and spend a wonderful night there and then the weekend not at home. After that I tried to ask people in the wagon where I should go out, because the train even didn’t stop at those stations. Of course, no one even wanted to answer me. But then one aged man came up and talked to me.

He asked whether I was going to the Vokzalna station and explained how I could get there. It turned out that I could get there by subway, I just had to transfer twice to another line. Of course, I hadn’t done that before. By my facial expression full of panic and confusion, the man understood that I needed help. So, he decided to go to the railway with me. I was shocked. The unknown man, having his own activities to do, perhaps going home to his family in the late Friday evening, then decided to help unknown girl get to the railway.

He was even going to another line. Nevertheless, he went with me, carrying my luggage bag, that wasn’t small by the way. We were literally running when changing lines, since I was out of time. The trains went really rarely at late hours so I had to be really quick. While going, I talked with that man and learned that he was actually a professor of my university, but of faculty of Physics. We talked about really interesting things, he was an educated and all-round man. Perhaps he was trying to distract me from constant checking the time left and being more and more nervous.

When we finally got to the proper station, the man went out with me, to me more exact ran out with me, because I had like one minute to the departure left and I jumped into some wagon just to get into the train. I thanked him a lot and then started moving to find my wagon. It was too late so the subway was closing and I don’t know how and when that man got home that night. But this situation changed my thinking a lot. I realized that even in a big crowded city where everybody cares only about their problems, you can find people quick to sympathize and ready to help if someone is in trouble, sacrificing their time and plans. I also realized that it is better to leave home a bit beforehand so that in cases of emergency I won’t spend night at the railway with the homeless, but it’s a completely different story.