Help Those Through Travel (and everyday life)

As we are now in the holiday season people start to get stressed with finishing things up at work, making sure all the shopping is done, possibly traveling through busy airports and so much more. Aside from just slowing down and making sure you reflect on the reason for the season and take time to spend time with family and do the things most important to you, you can also find ways to try to lift people’s sprits right now.

We were talking with some friends we met on our Baltic Cruise and they mentioned that they keep cash on hand and give out small tips to the people who are overlooked on cruise ships such as the cleaning staff/janitors, buffet servers and others. Just giving a couple dollars they would find brightened their day and helped a little bit make their lives a little better. One mentioned to them just the couple of dollars helped to feed his family for a decent period of time. While a couple of dollars might not be a big deal to us, it can mean a lot to people in many different countries or even with people in the US that are struggling. Also just the act of recognizing someone who might feel left out or uncared for might do more for that person than you might know.

While we are not wealthy by any means we have now dedicated some cash for each trip to try to recognize the unsung heroes of travel. On a cruise we took in the last couple of months we bought a pack of Thank You cards and tried to write encouraging messages and put cash in them. As we walked around the ship we handed the cards out to cleaning crew and others. Most were surprised and grateful to be recognized. We left a few with guest services to give to people in Engineering and IT amongst other people who are sometimes overlooked. While it might not make a big difference we hope it will help in a small way.

It doesn’t always have to be financial to possibly help someone. While in Mexico for example we were at a Taco Restaurant and we saw a very busy busser cleaning the tables came by. We simply spoke a few words in Spanish asking how his day was and recognizing how busy he was and how hard he was working and he opened up a bit to us and asked a little about us. He then worked to get us our food personally a bit quicker (not what we were asking for but it was appreciated). I believe he just appreciated being recognized and seen instead of being invisible to others as bussers sometimes can be.

There are many other ways and people we can help a little personally as we travel and go through our daily lives. Small things like tipping your hotel room’s cleaning staff or if you run into someone in your office or a store that might need some help consider giving some words on encouragement and if you can a bit of money as you never know what it could mean to someone else. With all the difficulty, uncertainty and darkness in today’s world a little bit of kindness can go a long way in making things better for others. Especially during the Christmas time period lets try to help those we encounter as we can!