My family and I just got back from the worst nightmare of our lives. We took a trip to Noah’s Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, which is about 3 hours from our house. We got discounted tickets and were excited to have a fun-filled day before I had to move back into school next weekend.

Our lives got turned upside down when we got off our last ride of the day to see that our bags were stolen. Everything we had was just gone. Our robbers left us with 3 wet towels, – they took the dry ones – our shoes, and the boot my mom has to wear because she broke her foot recently.

As a person with bad anxiety and as a claustrophobic who hates being trapped, this was one of my worst nightmares. I was stranded 3 hours from home with no way to contact anyone or even a way to get home because our keys were in one of the bags. As soon as I saw the empty picnic table, I immediately had a panic attack. My family and I had no clothes, IDs, a wallet, 2 debit cards, cash, prescription medications, our phones, and other valuables.

I completely lost faith in humanity at that moment. I always try to have a positive outlook and I always try to see the good in people. I also always try to hope that there is good in this world and this world can change – see my last article. All of my positivity was erased when my whole world was turned upside down. It was horrible. Imagine being 3 hours from home with no keys to your car or a phone to contact people.

These days no one needs to memorize emergency contact numbers, you just always have your phone on you with everyone’s numbers you could possibly need. If not, you have the internet to look up people’s phone numbers. Without a phone or internet, it’s hard to even get a hold of people. My dad remembered his mom’s phone number, but that was it. I know the number of everyone in my immediate family’s phone, but that was of no use considering they were all with me.

Thanks to the help of many employees of Noah’s Ark, we were able to do many things we wouldn’t have been able to. We owe a huge thank you to Ashley from guest services who did her best to calm us down and to alert all of the employees to keep an eye out for our bags. She also stayed with us all night until we were able to get a hotel. We also owe a huge thank you to the manager Giacomo Belardo who offered us sweatshirts, food, drinks, and gave us a hotel room for free. He was incredibly helpful and kind. To the men who saw me frantically sprinting around the parking lot while they were collecting garbage, thank you for helping me look for the bags and promising to continue looking the next day. Also, thank you for the ride. I never got your names, but you really helped calm me down and realize that people were looking out for us.

We also owe a huge thank you to Officer Rosciszewski of the Lake Delton PD for filing a report and for getting us into the car. He laughed at my attempts to bring comedic relief to the situation and made everyone feel more comfortable and safe. He told me it would be okay to use the computer in the office of the waterpark and if anyone asked, he was the one who gave me permission. That allowed me to post on Facebook so I could try to reach my family members. He acted as a good friend during our stressful situation, and I could not be more thankful. He also even offered to buy us dinner. He definitely went above and beyond the line of duty. He was an incredibly awesome man.

Another special thanks to the employees of the Flamingo hotel, Emily and Destiny. Destiny let us use the lobby phone because the phone in the hotel room was not working. We were able to cancel my debit card and my mom’s debit card with the use of the phone. Destiny let me log onto Facebook on her phone so I can continue to try to get in contact with family members. She was incredibly patient and helped us as much as she could. Emily heard of our situation and saw that we had no clothes other than our bathing suits and went to find us old employee uniforms. Neither of these girls had to help us at all, but they did so out of the kindness of their own hearts, and I’m so thankful for that.

My family and I are also extremely grateful to the man whose name we do not know who was in the lobby while we were explaining our situation and offered to drive my dad and brother to Walmart to get us clean, dry clothes and some toothbrushes and toothpaste. After leaving Walmart, he also drove them to McDonalds to get us dinner, since we hadn’t eaten since early that afternoon and nothing else was open. This man spent almost 2 hours driving around with my dad and my brother without even knowing a single thing about them. He wouldn’t even accept any money for gas because my dad bought him a burrito and he said that was more than enough. I’d like to think I’d do the same for people in need, but I just can’t get over how amazing it was of him to give them a ride.

My mom and I owe thanks to the couple we met in the lobby. Thank you for offering to buy us food and drinks and offering us Tylenol when you heard my mom complaining that her broken foot was in pain. Thanks for being friendly and offering your sympathies when you heard of our situation. You may have felt that you didn't do much to help, but your kindness was more than enough and it helped more than you’ll ever know.

Last but not least, I owe the biggest thanks to my best friend since birth, Jenna and her boyfriend Brendon for driving to my grandparent’s house in order to update them on the situation and let them know we were trying to get a hold of them. Thank you for getting the other key to the car, bringing us clothes, toothbrushes, deodorant, and other toiletries. Most importantly, thank you for getting up at 6 am to drive the 3 hours to the Dells to deliver everything you got us. We honestly would not have gotten home without you. I’m so lucky to have both of you in my life and I want you both to know that I would have done the exact same thing for you had you been in our situation. Words cannot begin to explain how much I love both of you.

So on the day I lost a lot of faith in humanity, I gained way more faith in humanity. Someone (or people) stole our bags and took many things from us, but way more people came to our rescue. I now know that there are truly good people out there, and they certainly outweigh the bad. I guess it took a horrible situation to realize that, but I’m glad I know that now. I haven’t given up hope that the world can change for the better, all due to the kind and wonderful people I met on Saturday.

Thank you all again.