On Monday, I was standing in Jamaica Center and waiting for the Q25 bus to go to school. It was cold and rainy and I was shivering in my boots, anxious to get warm.

Then a homeless man approached me. He said something to me but I couldn’t hear him because I had my iPod on. Once I removed them he repeated, “Can you buy me a cup of coffee? It’s too cold out here and if I go inside without buying something they’ll kick me out.”

I was standing next to a McDonald’s so I agreed and led him inside where we were greeted by immediate warmth. As we got on line to order, he started telling me about everything he went through. He said that he had just gotten out of the Queens Medical Center, where they took his MetroCard and whatever little money he had, as well as taking his clothes and replacing them with thin ones. He emphasized this point by pointing to the thin pajama-style pants he was wearing.

I listened to him tell me about how they had separated him from his wife who he had been married to for forty years, and how he couldn’t wait to leave Jamaica and because it was “crazy” and go to his mother’s. He also said he was waiting for his son to pick him up from the YMCA.

I wasn’t sure whether or not whatever he was telling me was true. My main goal was getting him some coffee so he could keep warm in the terrible weather. At the same time, I kept glancing outside just in case my bus came. The man noticed this and said, “Are you waiting for the bus?” When I replied with the affirmative, he said he didn’t want me to miss it and that he’d try to buy something himself because he had “a few pennies.”

Instead I reached into my wallet and handed him $5 to which he said, “Oh, now I can buy something to eat too.” When I said “take care” and turned to leave, tears pooled into his eyes as he thanked me.

I felt amazing after that. I’ll be honest, I have never really done anything overtly kind for anyone. But going out of my way to help a homeless man however I could made my day. My heart went out to him and I realized that it’s the little things we do that mean the most to people.