It’s incredible how much a stranger can brighten a person’s day. And every single one of us has the power to do it.

I didn’t have a good Monday to begin this week — a feeling I’m certain I shared with many. So rather than brewing coffee at home Tuesday, I decided I would try to perk things up by getting my daily dose of caffeine in a more delicious — and more expensive — form.

I strolled into Starbucks and ordered a medium (err...“grande?” I don’t know) white chocolate mocha from a fellow (err...“barista?” coffee lingo is not my forte) behind the counter.

The mocha was $4.51 after tax, a staggering number for a 16 ounce drink that doesn’t have alcohol in it if you ask me. But like I mentioned, the day before was just “one of those days,” and I wanted good coffee so badly I would’ve given the guy a blank check if it came down to it.

I pulled out $5 of the remaining $7 in my wallet, tried to hand it to the guy whose nametag said ‘Jonny’, and he shook his head.

“It’s on the house,” he said.

“...................................,” I replied.

That astute response on my end was followed by a few more seconds of dead air.

“Wait, what?” I finally mustered.

“It’s on the house, man. Have a good day.”

“But ... why?” I asked, still only able to manage monosyllabic words.

“Because I feel like doing something nice for someone,” he said.

Now, I don’t believe I had ever seen this guy before in my life. We had no previous relationship, and he had no motive — other than good will — to give me that drink for free.

But he did it anyway. I still can’t explain why. And it turned around not only my day, but the entire start to my week.

I walked into that Starbucks in a sour mood, and I left the place beaming. Not because I had saved four bucks and some change. The money I saved had nothing to do with it. I left in a good mood because someone who had absolutely no reason to try to make my day slightly better went out of his way to do exactly that.

And considering the day before was pretty miserable, it meant a little extra to me.

Like Jonny from Starbucks did for me yesterday, all of us have the ability to turn a stranger’s day around, even though we don’t have to. So, when the opportunity presents itself, perhaps we should all try a little bit harder to recognize it.

I know I will now. Not all of us are baristas at Starbucks, so we might have to get creative. I can’t say how I’m going to pay it forward, but I hope I find a good way to do it. We have a lot more power to change a person’s mindset than many of us appreciate.

So, cheers, everybody. Let’s go try to make someone’s day better.