Shelter me, please!

The radio personality promised sunny skies with highs of about 13 degrees. Perfect. Good weather is rare in Vancouver; every one of those four seasons seems to forecast rain. I decided that today would be appropriate to wear my Soia & Kyo houndstooth peacoat. So I went through my daily routine: I buttoned my coat, zipped up my boots, tossed my bag over my shoulder and headed out to the bus stop.

By early afternoon, the cosmos decided to turn against me and it rained – ”it rained really hard. I felt stranded. My coat did not have a hood and to my luck, it was dry-clean only! Oh the conspiracy! I went into immediate panic mode. I know it may sound superficial how I’m frazzled by the well-being of my coat, but every girl has an item they love beyond comprehensible measures, right? At least I’m learning to appreciate my belongings and not treat them frivolously – ”reader, you will understand once you visit my room.

And another reason for my uproar with the rain was because my next class was in a building at least ten minutes away from my previous class. To those who are unfamiliar with the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) campus, it is overwhelmingly large with many separate buildings. For instance, there is a chemistry building, a biology building, an education building, several libraries, cafeterias, a few gyms, and so forth. UBC is not a complex where everything is connected – ” if only! It is practically a city-within-a-city. For me to travel from one class to another, I might as well drown my coat in a pool!

As I stepped outside my classroom, I saw many peers pull out umbrellas and ready to face that hideous storm. I was left vulnerable and defenseless. Although I did not bring an umbrella of my own, I was not prepared to sacrifice my coat’s exterior due to my own thoughtlessness. So I decided to be a soldier and devised a plan to ask someone with a wide umbrella to shelter me.

Living in Vancouver for all of my life, I have grown accustomed to its lifestyle. This is why I am always stunned to have outsiders tell me how uptight and unfriendly Vancouverites can be. I argue that this was impossible since Reader’s Digest rated Vancouver as the second most polite city in Canada, and one of the most polite cities in the world! Then they stress that although we are polite, we are still very guarded and uptight. I stood corrected.

Therefore, asking someone to be sheltered underneath their umbrella is sort of bold and absolutely unconventional. I’m glad I did it because I had Lady Luck by my side: he was headed to the same building as me! It’s rare to find someone leaving from Buchanan building to the Swing Space building since they’re quite far apart, especially on the first try.

He gave me a puzzled look when I asked for assistance, but nonetheless, he did not refuse. From our ten minute excursion, I learned that his name is Kevin and he is a third-year commerce student. But above all, we discovered a common interest: writing. Making friends among strangers in an Alien Nation isn’t hard after all! The only requirement is having the earnest desire to break out of the strongly bounded Vancouverite shell – ”and perhaps the impulse to save the wool on a particular houndstooth peacoat…

Once I reached my destination I faced another dilemma: How was I going to protect my coat for the second time? During my 1.5 hour class I prayed that the rain had ended. To make matters worst, my professor kept us in an extra 10 minutes, reducing the population of potential of people with umbrellas to shelter me. I had two high school friends in that class and we lived in the same neighborhood. To my dismay, neither of them brought umbrellas either.

Lisa had a semi-waterproof jacket that came with a hood, so she was comfortable with trekking it out there in the rain. However, Liana’s jacket didn’t have a hood and as her long hair had finally dried by the end of class she was forced into the rain again to reach ultimate salvation. The three of us were ready to face another battle.

I do not know whether it was motivation, personality characteristics or assertiveness, but I was the only one out of us who was driven to find someone to shelter us. I thought Liana would join the search with me since she arrived in class completely drenched and frizzy, but Liana and Lisa merely walked behind me while I impulsively tried to look for someone carrying an umbrella.

Within a couple of minutes I found a girl with the most gorgeous navy blue umbrella I have ever laid eyes on. It had lace all around and it was sincerely aesthetically pleasing. Well, her name was Serena and she already graduated from UBC but she was taking a 100-level biology course as a perquisite for something. I had asked her whether or not she thought it was strange that I asked her to shelter me. She told me it was not weird and that she did not mind since she was headed in the same direction anyway.

That thought is golden. If it’s at our convenience why don’t we routinely shelter someone without an umbrella at our own discretion? However, most people are not accustomed to performing random acts of kindness. As is evident with Liana, she walked a solid 10 minutes in the rain to get to class without being offered to go underneath someone’s umbrella. And as is evident from me, in order to encourage someone to perform a random act of kindness, I had to ask for it.

When someone does do something kind for a stranger, like Kevin and Serena, the receiver remembers his or her efforts and the kind act. Although it may be something trivial like sheltering someone from the rain, it can be something significant to the other person like it was for me. Especially on campus when we are living in a community of peers and staff. I no longer see the rain the same anymore; whenever it rains I always scan my surroundings to see if anyone walking in front of me needs sheltering because I understand the value of performing a random act of kindness.