Today I need to assist my colleague to welcome the candidate for a grant program and take their photos for our catalog. There was a candidate with long curly black hair who asked me to take her photos twice or three times to have the perfect angle.

Then she asked me if I know the way to the metro station. I said yes, I do. Then she immediately changed the question to if she could take the tram to the Stockmann in the central station. I said yes again and was about to show her the direction when she came up with another question asking the way to the airport. I was a little confused by the time to figure out where she would like to go after all and again, about to show her the route where she need to take first the metro or tram then a train next when a woman passing by and ask ” Do you want to go to the airport?”

Both the candidate and I were startled ( I don’t think that woman heard the whole conversation but the word “airport”) and still did not know why the woman asks that. Then the woman explained that she was going to the airport now and have her own car and that she could give the candidate a lift. I really cannot think of any situation that is more coincidental than that. The candidate was so glad that she picked up her things right away and went with the woman in the elevator, introducing herself to the woman on the way. I said goodbye to her and head back to the waiting lounge, still amazed with that coincidence. And at the same time, I wonder where else in the world that such coincidence can happen, when you can give a stranger a lift for a long way without doubting their identity or others and offer the help right away, like an instinct. And I realize how lucky I am to be inspired by these little yet meaningful things happen everyday in Finland, to live in a society where trust and kindness between people is in the heart of it.

P.s: it was quite funny when I still thought about the answer for the last question when the candidate came up with a new one :))

V.V