November 13 is World Kindness Day. With all the problems going on in our contemporary society, it’s not easy to switch our mindset from “what’s wrong” to “how can we make things better in our own individual way?” It’s these little random acts of kindness that reminds us there are people who care. When we perform random acts of kindness, we are reminded that we aren’t powerless to make a difference.
Whether you do it for a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger, it really is little things you do for people that can make their day better. One day I was at work and it was lunchtime. I couldn’t open my bottle of water no matter how hard I tried with both my hands. They were red and sore and I was irritated. One of my co-workers saw I was struggling and left the room. He came back with pliers and opened the bottle for me. Finally, something that day went right. I was in a better mood now all because somebody took one minute out of their break time to help me out. I really think it’s things like this that help people get through the day.
During this month’s Lunch ‘n’ Learn we discussed random acts of kindness at MPTC’s West Bend campus. It was nice to talk about something positive. We talked about how people have shown kindness to us and how we show kindness to others.
We also shared ideas of how we could show kindness on campus. The simplest things to do are to say hi to people in the hallway, open doors for people carrying things, and picking up things off the floor. You can help your classmates when they are struggling with an assignment or task. You can ask people to go to lunch or dinner in the cafeteria after class. All these things don’t require any money or lots of time, but if you can make somebody’s day a little easier or a little nicer, it makes a bigger impact in the world than we realize, especially if we are all doing these things every day.
If somebody shows you kindness today, make sure you pass it on!