I thought I'd also accompany this story with an item I had eyed for over a year (I finally bought it after much much thought, and after keeping it in the drawers, opened it today). Said item and the story are somewhat intertwined, and I thought it befitting to show off said item.
Anyway, the story goes like this.. Sometime in the middle of 2018, I was in the process of purchasing this gorgeous fountain pen that I've been eyeing for a while. For some magical reason, the company, Benupen from Russia, had been following me on Instagram which led me to browse through their items. After a long time of oogling over the pens, I decided to gift myself with two pens from this company.
The purchase itself was smooth, with the correspondent being really helpful and informative. (Most of the interaction happened over Instagram) But what came after reminded me of just how much good there is in this world.
You see, around this time, a person close to heart was in Russia for work. Let's name the person, C. Just a little background on C: C is a foreigner to Russia, with zero understanding of the language and geography of the city. One day, C was sent out by a colleague to pick up art supplies. With only the address in hand, C was sent off to get the supplies needed for work. Needless to say, C got super lost. Despite using an Uber, C was sent to the wrong place. Poor thing didn't know what to do, and no one spoke English.
Luckily for me, I had just completed the purchase of my pens and was speaking to the correspondent about some other issues. In desperation, I asked the correspondent, Kate, to help me. (If you're reading this, Hi Kate!) Without hesitation, Kate agreed to help C. She checked C's location, got her to the supply store, called C to help with translation, then got C back to home base. All this for a complete stranger!
When C got back to the hotel, I could hear the huge relief that rolled off C's back. Oh man. I would've been just as nervous if I were in that situation. I've never met Kate, and from the sound of it, she's just a mere employee of Benupen, but she went out of her way to help a stranger that could give her nothing in return, really warmed my heart.
I know I know, you're probably thinking that this is way overdue. Why even bother talking about it after so long.. Well, to be honest, I had been wanting to talk about this for a really long time. This one day was so significant that I really wanted to make sure that I etched the time out to put this story out there.
2018 had been a rather challenging time. Not just for me, I'm sure. But I had experienced lots of changes and issues that are still playing out as the year comes to an end. This story is something that I hold dear to me, because of the immense warmth and kindness that came from it. I thought I'd just share this small but significant story.
As the year comes to a close, I shan't make anymore empty promises of a fuller blog, but I guess from time to time, I'd like to still be able to share stories that made an impact in my life. Here's to the remainder of 2018, and cheers to a fulfilling 2019.
Thank you, Kate from Benupen. I have not met you in person but I hope that if I do, I would like to give you the biggest hug.
Oh, and here is ONE of the two gorgeous pens that I bought.
Happy New Year everyone
