Dear Unknown Girl,

The other day your actions made me evaluate myself as a person. As we were both walking into the school doors, I was a couple feet ahead when something I had no control over happened.

Since manufacturers think ladies don’t deserve decent sized pockets in their jeans, the wrinkly green ten dollar bill given to me by my mother that morning managed to suicide jump out from my back pocket and land right in your view. As the good samaritan you are, you picked it right up and shouted “Hey you dropped your money!”

You may have thought my reaction was a little over the top but I was flabbergasted by this. Like myself most people are very stingy and would jump to the opportunity to pocket that cash someone dropped on the ground, but you did not. My first question for you is Why? You don’t have to answer this question because I already know the answer. You have a great heart and probably understand the feeling first hand. I immediately thought back to how sad it is when I slide my fingers into that tiny pocket only to find that it is empty and my cash is no longer with me.

I always think about the person who found my money and how they better be grateful that they found it and hopefully spend it on something more important than a bag of chips. I also think the reason why I was so caught off guard by your action was because most people wouldn’t do that. Even though we live in a community that is considered wealthier than most you’d be surprised at the amount of things stolen everyday from students. Just the other day someone stole my pants right out of my backpack!

The fact that you could’ve gotten effortless money and chose to do the right thing and give it back really shows that there are still some people in this world who aren’t totally heartless. What you may not have expected when you handed me back that money was that you made me have a change of heart. The next week I coincidentally saw someone drop a beautiful crisp twenty on the ground. My first instinct was to literally hop out of my seat and tackle that twenty like a quarterback at the Super Bowl. But something stopped me.

You stopped me and all of a sudden my mouth took on a mind of it’s own and blurted out “Hey you dropped a twenty!” Most people do a good thing for someone else and as a result feel great afterwards, but for me, I felt a weird mixture of total regret contradicting with feeling proud of myself.

At first I repeated in my head all the things I could’ve bought with that money but then I realized that I don’t know what the girl needed the money for? Maybe she worked hard hours at her job in order to make that money and for me to just “steal” it from her would feel… well… wrong. How could I take her money when a total stranger didn’t take mine the week before?

In the end, I realized as much as it feels good to give into temptation it also feels pretty darn good to just do the right thing. I may not be the best person but I know that I made someone’s day suck a little less and that feeling is priceless. However if you are all alone and happen to stumble upon money the rule of finder’s keeper’s does come into play.