TOW #15: Happy waitress even happier after receiving astounding tip by: Lauren Tuck

            As I opened up my Safari browser to begin work on my post this week, an uplifting-looking article on the Yahoo homepage caught my eye. “Happy Waitress Even Happier After Receiving Astounding Tip”, written by Yahoo Shine Staff member Lauren Tuck, turned out to be a sunny little article highlighting a random act of kindness. Last week in Lincoln, Nebraska an 18-year old server at a Cracker Barrel was rewarded for her positive attitude and touching life story with a 6,000 tip from two unnamed male patrons. After asking for the restaurant’s grumpiest server and being told that no such server was present, the two men were directed towards Abigail Sailors. Sailors, known as the establishment’s happiest waitress, confided in the men that she was a student at a college in North Dakota, struggling to pay for her own education. Upon hearing that Sailors was going to be unable to return to school for her spring semester due to her inability to pay tuition, one of the men revealed himself to be an alumni of the same college and presented Sailors with the astounding gift of 5,000 for tuition and an additional 1,000 for any other needs. Sailors is the most recent recipient in the nationwide craze of leaving extremely generous tips for servers as a random act of kindness.

            The text is directed towards members of the general American public. Tuck appeals to the emotions of the average American in this piece through the usage of an anecdote taken from waitress Abigail Sailors, describing her difficult childhood being shuffled through the foster care system. Sailors’ tale, which she had recounted to the two men, involves being split up from her siblings multiple times and abused before being adopted by Susi and John Sailors. The inclusion of this anecdote is particularly effective in conveying the author’s main purpose, which is that random acts of kindness by strangers are an extremely positive thing to put out into the world, and can really change someone’s life. Tuck is attempting to give readers of this article a renewed hope for the goodness of mankind. I was inspired and moved by this article, and therefore would definitely say that the author was successful.