I go to SFSU, and have rarely been in Oakland, and when I have i’m almost always in a car. I’m extremely broke right now, literally $0 to my name. Only reason I was in Oakland was to sell my headphones for food money as my EBT is messed up (but that’s a different story) anyways. I get off at Fruitvale, only to find out I was supposed to get off at West Oakland to meet the facebook buyer. Here’s the issue, I at this point have 90 cents to my name, three quarters and 15 cents on my clipper card. This whole time i’m trying to call family/friends, he’s trying to sell candies in broken english, very polite but it seemed at first he didn’t understand my “being broke” was not just an excuse to have him leave me alone (though I was getting somewhat annoyed. To make matters even worse, before I get a hold of anyone, my phone dies, so all I have is my SFSU ID (free muni for anyone wondering how i got there, and the buyer was going to meet me right outside the station so I’d be able to buy a ticket back to SF). At this point i’m in tears practically, the man offers to sell me candy again (i believe he just didn’t recognize that he already tried with me) and through my tears i just half mumble that im broke and can’t afford any of your candy. However, at this point, he starts trying to have me explain my situation, and though I know no spanish and he seems to understand English somewhat better but still struggles, he connnects that i’m stuck, and need $4 about to get home. I figured he’d wish me best of luck, which would be understandable as my lack of preparedness and financial issues are (understandably) not his problem. However, he leads me to the machine to add clipper card fare, and despite my insistence, he pays all $4 for me. A man who is making money by selling candy for 50 cents a piece, doesn’t hesitate to spend who knows how long he worked, just to make sure i get home safely. To top it off I practically beg for his phone number so i can pay him back. He insists to just pass it on, but i believe he also deserves at the very least, recognition for what be did today. He let me get his picture and lost it on reddit, but didn’t think people would care since he believes ”anyone would help”.

While most would believe this just is showing some naivety, but I choose to believe instead that this is a man who believes people are good in this world, and he is easily a perfect example of that.

This man’s name is Runy, and he was a guardian angel for me this afternoon. He’s apparently selling candy around this time and earlier (this was between 6-6:45p.m or so?) if you’re in the area, check him out or just say he’ll