Great things come in threes.
The following was written by a middle school student in my class as part of a Acts of Kindness Blog task: "The act of kindness I did might not have been much, but I created happiness in three different people. Three weeks ago, we had nearly run out of supplies at home, and we needed to go shopping. As we entered the supermarket, something caught my brother’s eye and he yelled “Mum! Please can I have that?” She replied with “Not today, maybe the next time we see it.” She carried on with the shopping, pushing the trolley a few meters ahead of us. My brother kept turning back to look at the toy. From where I stood, I could see the disappointment etched in his face. We carried on with our shopping. Carrots, spinach, Brussel sprouts… no toy. Then we walked over to the cereals section. I hung back a bit, to look at some of the cereal that I always eat, while my mum and brother looked at their favorite cereals. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something gold glittering on the ground. Whipping my head downwards to look at it, I saw that it was three metal rings joined together. But wait. That looked familiar. I picked it up, forgetting that I wasn’t supposed to touch stuff from the ground (you know, COVID-19 safety) and it settled in the palm of my hand — all three rings aligned — and my heart leaped. This was the Cartier ring that my dad bought for my mum in Australia a few years ago. I knew how precious and valuable this was to my mother. I looked up again and saw that my mum hadn’t realized what had just happened. When I had caught up to her, I asked her casually, “Have you lost anything?” When she looked confused, I told her to look at her right hand. She gasped. “My ring!” she cried. “How could I have lost it?” With a smile spread across my face, I opened up my fist. The ring still sat there, majestic, handsome, and twinkling. Mum gasped again. “My ring!” she cried yet another time. She hugged me so tightly it hurt, but it was fine for me. I had managed to find a ring that meant so much to her. Even better, she said “Thank you so much, darling! You can buy whatever you want from this store now. Choose whatever you like!” I didn’t want anything. But my brother did. “Please, please… could you buy Larry that toy we saw at the front of the store? He wants it really badly.” The smile on my mum’s face faltered a little — she was evidently confused about my choice. Then it lifted again as she realized. “Of course!” I led my brother over to the shelf where the toys were and told him to pick anything, and he picked the one his eyes had caught the moment we entered the shop. Moments later, the toy was clutched in his hands and we were heading out. They were both smiling. My mum was happy that she didn’t lose her prized possession and was touched by my kindness, my brother because he had finally gotten the toy he had so wanted, and I was elated because I had managed to give out kindness and happiness that day." By Clare Wang