Sometimes the people who are the hardest to love need our love the most.
It’s something Juggling With the Jenkins vlogger Tiffany Jenkins has talked about before.
Jenkins is a comedian, wife, mother, best-selling author, recovering addict, and content creator who has more than four million Facebook followers who appreciate her hilarious honesty in discussing issues like family life, mental illness, and addication.
Jenkins recently visited Los Angeles International Airport where she saw a person being ridiculed because he was having a tough time while aggressively expressing his frustrations about the airport’s outward transportation situation.
He turned out to be a veteran.
Jenkins was pretty upset by what she saw. Not because this guy was making a scene in the airport, but because of the reactions of the people around him.
“I had a situation recently that made me feel like I needed to remind everyone again of the importance of being kind to people even if they don’t deserve it in that moment,” Jenkins said in a Facebook video.
Jenkins was navigating LAX’s new Uber system when she came across the man.
She described the system as a “clusterf*ck.” Not only was she confused about what was going on but so was everyone around her.
But there was one man in who was having a particularly tough time trying to get a ride home from the airport.
“As I was getting onto the shuttle I heard him screaming about how upset he was that no one was helping him and that there was no organization,” Jenkins explains. “He was incredibly frustrated.”
Though he clearly need some help, that’s not the response he was met with.
Bystandards and airport staff alike laughed at the struggling man.
To make matters even more disturbing, some people even pulled out their phones and started to record him ranting. Because, as Jenkins explains rolling her eyes, pulling out your phone and mindlessly filming everything you see, even if you don’t have a person’s consent to film, is “the cool thing to do.”
Well, it definitely wasn’t cool to Jenkins who was empathizing with the man.
“When he was yelling and being laughed at, I saw a little bit of myself in him at that moment. Like, I could relate to feeling completely out of control, and feeling lost, alone, and frustrated, and not knowing how to process these emotions,” Jenkins says. “His manifested itself as an outward anger.”
When they loaded onto the shuttlebus, the people were shrinking away from him as he continued to mutter under his breath.
Instead of following the herd’s reaction, Jenkins decided to extend some kindness to him.
She started to chat with him explaining how she also found the airport Uber system to be frustrating. She told him that he was not alone.
“He started ranting again, venting he needed to get it out,” Jenkins explains. “And I said: ‘Yeah it’s very frustrating but you’re here, you made it on the bus. You’re on your way.’ Trying to diffuse a little bit, trying to put like a positive spin on it.”
Jenkins was heartbroken by what the man told her. He explained that he served in the Armed Forces for seven years and was also the capatin of his local police department for 30 years.
“And these people are out here laughing at me like I’m a joke,” he told Jenkins.
She was hurt that this man who put himself in high stress and dangerous situations for the sake of others for almost four decades felt so disrespected.
She thanked him for his service and apologized for the fact that he felt this way as a result from the reactions of others at the airport.
He started to tearing up saying that he was just trying to get home to his wife. As something she could totally relate to, Jenkins decided to go further out of her way to help the man.
“I did what I think most of us should try to do during these situation and I put myself in his shoes,” she said.
She sat with him and download the Uber app on his phones and explained how to use it. It took about 20 minutes. The man became emotional again and told her that he would have never been able to do that on his own.
Jenkins explained that all she did was take a moment to recognize that he was a person, just like her.
“There are people out there who are angry and hurt and have trouble expressing their emotions and we have a choice: we can kick them when they’re down or we can extend the hand,” Jenkins explained. “I’m not saying walk up to a dude who’s screaming like crazy on the street and give him a hug.
That, she said, could be creepy and dangerous.
“What I am saying is love goes so much further than hate and it can make all the difference in the world to somoene.”
Check out this queen’s video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
