Saturday, July 26, 2008

My First Hug


Working with the public all the time, I’ve found that very few people are actually as grateful as you’d imagine they’d be. It is very rare that someone comes up and actually says thank you. Now, I don’t mean the people who have their mommy’s come up and remind them to say thanks, I am talking about people that genuinely show their appreciation for what I take time to do for them.

I’ve had a few times when someone’s thanks really stuck out and made an impact on my life. One time in particular, it even brought me to tears.

I was twisting a balloon in a Beef O’ Bradys. It’s a family sports bar in Tampa that has great food and a pretty awesome atmosphere. On this particular day, that atmosphere included a 4 year old girl that was running around all over the place.

It is not usually my place to discipline anyone, ever. So, I wasn’t really going to tell her she was out of place running around everywhere. Instead, I made her a huge hat so that everyone was able to see her before she could get into the kitchen in back or before she got too far away from her table for her guardian to watch her.

Well, sure enough, she started to run off again toward the kitchen. Being the awesome balloon guy I was, I remembered her name, called out to her, and had her come back towards me and her table. I was ducking down so that I could speak to her on eye level. And being she had the huge hat, and being I called across the restaurant to her, everyone was watching as she ran over to me without blinking and eye and gave me the biggest hug ever.

Now, normally that wouldn’t mean too much, but I had never gotten a hug up to this point from anyone I had twisted a balloon for. And beyond that, nearly everyone in the restaurant burst out in a simultaneous “Awwww.”

That moment was probably the best moment in my life up to that point. I don’t know what the deal was between her and her family and I’m not sure why there was such an issue watching her, but I do know that she running up and giving me a hug was at the time the best thank you I had ever gotten while twisting a balloon.

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