A quick anecdote:

About . . . 3ish weeks ago someone hit my car.

 I was sitting in the turn lane with my blinker on, as you do, waiting to turn into a plaza that held what I needed most at that moment it my life - caffeine. It was about 6 in the morning and I was going to pop into Starbucks on my way to work. As I am waiting for a car to pass so I can safely make a left hand turn, I see in my rear view mirror a car coming out of the drive-thru exit. It's not going around me. It's coming at me. I have no where to go so I am helpless as the car hits me. It jolts me forward and I enter a state that I would describe as dumbfounded shock.

The only option available to me at that point was to finish my turn and park, hoping that the driver would do the responsible thing and follow. Luckily, they did. We park, get out of our respective cars, and I see that it a woman, probably not much older than me. I will refer to her as Miss Tea. She starts to apologize right away. She like me, had needed an extra caffeine boost. I ask her if she is alright since, beyond my shock, I am not hurt. Neither is she. We exchange information and take pictures of our cars to assess the damage. There isn't any more than a tiny scratch on wither vehicle. The worst that happened was that her iced tea had spilled over the interior of her car and on her jacket.

At that point I tell her it's probably fine and I will let her know later that day if anything needs to be done - just in case something I'm not noticing now is actually damaged. So we say goodbye, she goes to clean her car, I go to get my chai tea (finally) and head to work.

My car is fine. Her car is fine. We were both unhurt and in my opinion that was the most important thing. I sent her a text telling her that we were square. She thanked me and said she wished she send me something. I told her we were good. It was the best version of what could have happened.

Fast forward to yesterday:

I open my mailbox to find an envelope from Miss Tea. I wasn't expecting one and I hadn't given her my address - though I later realized that it's on my driver's license, of which she had a photo. Inside is a thank you card and a gift card for $100. To say I was again in shock is an understatement.

When I went to work and said that the woman who hit my card was a nice person I was told by everyone that she would probably try and swindle me. "They always seem nice." "They will say they're fine and claim damages later." All sorts of nasty thing that made me doubt my impression of Miss Tea. Was I really that gullible?

No, I was not.

This isn't to say that if something like this happens to you you shouldn't take the steps to insure you are protected. Take pictures, take down the information, etc.

My point is that people seem to assume the worst in others. Their first instinct is distrust.

Not everyone is out to get you.

Nice people exist - even in bad circumstances.

It's nice to be reminded of that truth sometimes.