Never too late.

Today I witnessed a woman stealing another woman's phone. And I did nothing. I'm sitting here trying to write something inspirational about acting on instinct and not letting your weaknesses and fears hold yourself back, but I feel like a hypocrite, overwhelmed by guilt... It's a weird feeling, as though I've disappointed myself.

It's passed a few hours and within those few hours, I decided to do something about what I saw. I'm currently a student and volunteer personal assistant at the University of Hertfordshire, this situation did in fact occur here. I was at the mini Costa in the Law Building, a lady in the line in front of me was putting sugar into her coffee on the nearby counter. It was only after she left that I had realized she had left her phone behind. I was determined to give the phone to one of the workers but I was waiting for my coffee to be made (which is slightly selfish of me).

The woman in the queue behind me had her warm drink made first and handed to her, she went to the counter where the phone was to add sugar and what not. I saw her grab the phone and hold it in her hand as she walked away... I wanted to say something, I needed to say something, but I'm timid and I didn't quite understand what I was seeing. "Was she on her way to give back the phone?", "Did she know the woman who left it behind?", "Was she going to security to give the phone to one of the workers there?!"

Moments later, I decided to go speak to my boss about what happened. She could see that I was distraught about not doing anything so she went with me back to where the phone was taken. When we had gotten there she asked one of the workers at Costa if a phone had been reported missing, the lady said yes but that unfortunately no phone had been handed in so they could not do anything about it. Feeling even more guilty I asked if we could go check security in case the woman had given the phone to a member of staff there, but no phones had been handed in there either.

My boss and I have a close relationship, she is in fact one of my mum's best friends, and she has helped me with various other situations and circumstances before. She knows me, and she knew I wanted to help fix what I hadn't done before. An act of kindness if you will. She asked me if I remembered what she looked like, I said yes. She asked if I knew the direction in which she had gone, I said yes. We both walked to through the Law Building (where the lady who took the phone had gone) and checked each of the classrooms, where I did in fact find her.

Not wanting to disturb the lesson which she was in, my boss decided to note the number of the room, find out who the lecturer was, and check the names of each student. She found the name and gave it to security.

Thus far this is all the information I have, I am unsure whether the phone has or will be returned but I tried. It was a little late but I tried. I guess what I'm saying is that, it's never too late to go back to redeem yourself, to fix what you hadn't. It's never too late to make a difference. I thought it was too late, I don't know why I froze, I don't know why I didn't do anything in the moment, but I came to the conclusion that I hadn't done my best, and attempted to do what I could. No matter the situation, we can always do our best, and attempt to do all that we can.