I ordered pizza the other night from our favorite little shop in East Nashville. Over the years, my family has become close with the family who owns the shop. They have five children ranging in age from 5 to 24 and all of them work at the restaurant. Often, the mom or the one of the older boys or the father will be the one to deliver our order to the house. There is always an extra bag of chips or a peice of fudge pie included in the order “for the babies!”. Needless to say, I have a deep affection and respect for this family.
On this particular night, their oldest son delivered the order. He is tall, kind and likes to smile. He always asks how we are, “How’s the kids?” he asked.
“Great. You are so good to always ask,” I said.
Then, I realized something. “Holy cow, you graduate from high school soon, don’t you???”
He smiled, “Yeah, I have to get through all these finals and with being off of school so long with the floods, I am worried. But, it will all work out.”
“You go to McGavock High School, right?”
“Yep, for a few more days, I do.”
“So, one of my coworkers works there, Mr. Hall. Do you know him? He is the STARS Specialist.”
“YOU WORK FOR STARS???? I didn’t know that. I love STARS. Yes, I know Mr. Hall. Man, he really helped me out a while back.” He paused, remembering something difficult and sad. “Yeah, Mr. Hall really helped me. I mean, I may not be here. That is so cool you for STARS.”
Here I was thinking I was ordering dinner for my family, taking the easy way out after a long day of work and flood clean-up, only to realize how much it matters to show respect, kindness and care to a young person. This young man will be graduating high school in the next two weeks. He always brings something positive and kind to my front porch when he delivers our order. I am grateful to know the same was done for him through his experience with STARS.
