From our AOK team member, Lynn:Parking at Target on the weekend usually sucks, you’re on guard for all sorts of rotten driving behavior. Today, I was more than pleasantly surprised when a young woman and her son went towards their car, and it was the son who made eye contact and a gesture to alert me that this parking spot was soon going to be for me. What really struck is the age of the boy, maybe 7 or 8, and how proud he was to provide me this gift and exchange this silent pleasantry…well beyond his years….it was as if he’d been watching his mom for years do the same, and seeing how happy it made people, thought he’d give it try. I smiled and waved big time, and I could tell he thought it was cool to bond, if only for a moment, with a perfect stranger, on this nice gesture. AOK Observed!A few moments later, the boy gets out of his car and walks towards mine. For the life of me I can’t think of any reason this would need to occur…and I CONFESS that I was a little apprehensive…what could this boy want from me…was there any reason I should go back to my previous on guard position? Geez I hoped not…we’d just had such a perfect AOK moment! I rolled down my window…and the sweet little guy just wanted to tell me that ‘his mom was going to take a little while longer…she had to do something in the car’….WHAT…getting out of your car to tell me this…your AMAZING kid (I thought in my head)! He just didn’t want me to have to wait…he smiled..happy to impart this bit of important information…and boy did I smile back. The only thing I wish I could have taken back was my minor moment of apprehension…completely washed away as this kid melted my heart and made my day!

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