I came home from a little trip to the mall this morning, walked through the door and said "Rich, I picked up a hitchhiker." He looked at me like I was the biggest idiot alive and said " A MALE HITCHHIKER?? That was really dumb" I know, I know... really dumb move. I can just see my mom right now FREAKING out. So let's just get it out there. FYI, I was by myself... never in my life would I have picked this kid up with my baby in the car... never never never. I know that I could have been killed, stolen, yadda yadda yadda. I have NO idea why on earth I did, but I did, and have since lived to tell the tale :) I will never do it again, so everyone just calm the freak down. Here's the story.... I was driving out of the mall parking lot and I see this kid standing on the corner of the street and he has a HUGE white board that says " God loves you" and he looks like my brother. I'm not kidding... shaggy brown hair about 18ish years old and has everything he owns on his back. He didn't have a thumb out, but the sign. So I pull over to hand him a $5 bill and he said, " actually mam, I'd rather have a ride to BYU, if that's ok." So I said hop in, and he said " REALLY?" and I said " as long as your cool with riding in the back" So the kid loads up all of his stuff and jumps in the back of the echo. :)(ps. he was TOTALLY stinky, bless his heart) We established that is name was Collin, and also exactly where he wanted to go, and then I asked..."So what the H are you doing hitchhiking..if I were your mother I'd punch you!" He proceeded to explain that he was traveling the county, that Utah was his 19th state and that he was visiting his friends at college campuses all over and then hoping to eventually end up in Philly to meet up with his favorite Christian author and hopefully be able o work with him, since he is a advocate for the rights of homeless people. I also found out that he is from Bellevue, WA which is Rich's home town and that a Polish trucker picked him up in Laramie, WY last night and dropped him off at the Provo Mall this morning. He also said he was surprised that I picked him up ( ya think?!?). I dropped him off at the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni Center at BYU and he asked for my whole name... in which I proceeded to give him a fake one :) and then he looked me in the eye and said with all the sincerity in the world, " Kellie, is there anything that I can pray for that you stand in need of?" and I said " well, Collin, my husband needs a job" :) So he wrote that all down, gave me a handshake and a god bless you and with that he was gone... All in all, as dumb of a decision as it may have been, I'm glad I did it. This kid reminded me how simple life can be. So many time I'm really really quick to complicate things and make them larger than life and drama drama drama, but this kids was just living simple. I liked that. :)
10 comments:
WOW! i love that story! that kid has passion and a true task he wants to complete. its kinda like the saying, you never know whose shoulder you may run into walking quickly through life, it may even be an angel...intersting kid.
He sounds very interesting. I don't think you're crazy for picking him up. I think you just know sometimes if it's the right thing or not. If you had gotten a bad feeling about it, I'm sure you wouldn't have done it.
Um....Way to have the courage to do that, I don't think even with my husband in the car I could do it. But hey, everyone's got to do something crazy a time or two, right.
I've picked up hitchhikers (in my younger days) and each one had different stories to tell. Would be pretty cool to see if this kid gets to his final destination. Glad he had God on his side
Wow! That is a neat story. It needs to be in Reader's Digest or something!
oooo, good story! reminds me of the movie "into the wild". have you seen it? its R. but worth the sin. ;) anyway, great story!!!
I used to hitch hike in hawaii all the time! We always used to hitch hike to the north shore and back. But we always got picked up cuz who wouldnt pick up hot chicks in swimming suits!! I also picked up lots of people. Generally people are cool. As long as they dont look like serial killers I would usually give em a ride. But Hawaii is also way different from here. Anyways Kell I am proud of your kindness and good judgement!
Hey, maybe he was one of the three nephites or something...and he was in your car! You are famous!
Never pick up hitch hikers! they kill people
Kellie, I don't belive ou when you say you'll never do it again. I'm going to blog about you so check it out....
Post a Comment