Business card for free? The outstanding surprise I got from a total stranger

It still boggles my mind how much impact can a random act of kindness from a stranger have on ourselves. Months pass by without anything exciting happening and then, out of the blue, a person we just meet while waiting for the buss or standing in the line at Starbucks marks our existence. Sometimes they share a powerful story, compliment a body part we always perceived as a flaw; other times they pay our bill.

Rafal Brzegowy is that type of guy. He's made a fleeting appearance in my live, enough though to make me smile in the weeks to come.

Back in Romania, I took my business card for granted. The secretary used to order them for all the journalists and I would handed them like candy, without even blinking. A recent encounter with an American journalist made me realized how important they are. I ended up scribbling my name and blog on a torn piece of paper!

That's my ugly couch right there

Our income barely covers the basic necessities, so I knew I had to find another way of obtaining a couple of business cards. Last Friday, home alone and sad, I searched the Internet for some Chicago-based printing companies. Three names caught my attention. I send each of them a short e-mail explaining my situation, asking for no more than 15 business cards. When Saturday morning rolled around, I found a positive response in my Inbox. It was from the smallest of the three companies.

The owner, a 40 something Polish established twelve years ago in "The Windy City", asked me to pick up the business cards two day later. When the day finally came, I almost cancelled. A crazy storm and a sharp wind left the impression of a city that was about to take off and fly to Kansas.

Determined to keep my word, I braved the rain at 9 a.m., praying for a little sun. Two CTA buses later, I shook hands with Rafal in his cozy office, somewhere in Elston. A couple of minutes into conversation, he pointed towards a little white box. "It couldn't be", I thought to myself. "I made you 250 copies, you should have plenty", he said, with a genuine smile on his face. Rafal's light brown hair, blue eyes behind round shaped glasses and rosy cheeks perfectly matched his bubbly personality; I could tell right away that he took pleasure in seeing me surprised. He enjoyed giving me this gift. 

We then talked for a while about our lives here; mostly about how we would both choose America if we had to immigrate again. He told me he just had opened his own business, so I figured it out it would be nice to put his business card on my blog. Go check his website too and show his some love!