This Student’s Boss Gave Him A Car After He Walked 20 Miles To Get To Work

We all know how important it is to make a good first impression, especially on your first day at work. But college student Walter Carr took that to the next level on his first day working for a moving company in Pelham, AL.

Carr was set to begin working for Bellhops moving company on July 13, but ran into a problem when his car broke down the night before. Rather than panic or call in and say he couldn’t come, Carr decided to take matters into his own hands.

“This was the first job in a long time to give me an opportunity to get hired,” Carr told AL.com. “I wanted to show them I got the dedication. I said I’m going to get to this job one way or another.”

And the way he showed that dedication was by walking 20 miles to Pelham, where his first job was going to be helping a couple move out from their house. Carr left his house at midnight and made it to Pelham by 4 a.m., meaning he was walking alone on the side of the road in the dark for hours. Jenny and Chris Lamey, the couple who was meant to be Carr’s first job, opened the door the morning of July 13 to see Pelham police officers escorting Carr to work.

“You could tell how the officer told us this story that he had complete admiration for Walter and by my reaction he could tell I did too,” Jenny Lamey wrote on Facebook. “The police officer said they picked him up earlier that morning, took him to get some breakfast and once they checked his story out, brought Walter to our house.”

An officer saw Carr walking alongside the road at 3 a.m., and stopped to ask him if he was alright. When the situation was explained, the officers were awed by his perseverance and took him for breakfast. But that wasn’t the end of the story; when Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin heard Carr’s story, he drove to Alabama from Tennessee to meet Carr—and give him a huge surprise.

“When I heard your story … I was blown away,” Marklin told Carr in a video (above). “[I thought,] He’s got everything he needs to be a Bellhop, but one piece he’s missing is a way to get there.” So he handed Carr the keys to his 2014 Ford Escape and told him it was his.

Carr was clearly so moved by this gesture of kindness, and will continue to move forward with the same dedication that drove him to walk 20 miles to work. He said, “I want people to know this – no matter what the challenge is, you can break through the challenge. Nothing is impossible unless you make it impossible.”

Honestly, I’m a little emotional too. So if you’re ever searching for some motivation when you’re in a pinch, Carr is the perfect role model. “You can do anything you set your mind to,” he said. “I’ve got God by my side. I’m really emotional right now trying to hold back the tears.”