What’s the price of a memory?

Here’s a question for you: how much is a memory worth to you?

I was asking myself that very question a year ago, when I found myself on an unexpected adventure in an unexpected place.

A while back, I posted about an amazing experience I had meeting my family for the first time in Sicily. It was an experience that stays with me to this day. So when I decided to return to Sicily in 2023, I experienced a series of canceled flights trying to get back to Atlanta. After a flight to Paris turned into a flight to Nice, I was quite distraught to learn that my flight from Nice to Atlanta had been canceled until the next day.

I had already had a lovely vacation, and was tired from traveling, so what was I going to do with 24 hours in a place I knew nothing about and hadn’t planned to visit? I felt a bit defeated until I remembered that a friend of mine had just spent a month in Nice. “What should I do for a day here?” I asked her.

She asked me to wait a few minutes, and much to my surprise (and hers), she received the answer she was looking for. I had no idea it would be exactly what I was looking for, too.

“My Uber driver from the first day I arrived ended up taking me on a tour of all the best parts of the city a few days before I left, and it was the best part of my trip,” she said. “He said he’ll do the same for you.”

Before I knew it, she had connected me with Sabri, and although he was busy six days a week driving people around the city, he happened to be free on the very day I needed him – on his one day off. And, as luck would have it, he was just ten minutes away from my hotel, and could be there momentarily. I couldn’t believe it!

We did so many amazing things together, including stopping for coffee at a restaurant perched right above the sea! After that, we had lunch at Sabri’s place, as his friend had just filled his refrigerator with the most delicious food. Then we went and took a dip in the sea! He showed me Cannes and Villefranche-sur-Mer, and one of my favorite views was from Le Jardin Exotique in Eze.

After being with Sabri for 10 hours, I asked what I should pay him, and he told me it was up to me to decide. How do you put a price on joy? I gave him €500, which, as it turned out, was exactly the amount of money he needed to fly his son in from Tunisia. When I paid Sabri, he told me he hadn’t seen his son in months, and missed him so much, but didn’t know how he’d be able to pay for a ticket. Because of our day together, he could.

For me, the moral of this story is simple: always be open.

We make all these plans and sometimes they’re completely wiped out, but then it leaves room for other things to happen. Sometimes it ends in disaster, but sometimes it doesn’t. Because of our day together, Sabri had exactly what he needed. And, as it turns out, so did I.

I’ve been truly blessed in my life. I love how the people we know can connect us to others who may change our lives in some way. Some may offer us a coffee interview with a potential mentor. Others may help us get an interview for a new job. And others may end up connecting you to a complete stranger in a city you never expected to visit and offer you one of the best experiences of your life.

You can’t put a price on a memory. I prefer to think about it in terms of a ripple. My friend had a beautiful memory with Sabri, which allowed her to connect us so that I could have one, and my day with him allowed him to then make memories of his own with his son. To me, there is no dollar amount for that kind of richness.

So I ask you, how much is a memory worth to you?