By Phillip Hudson
Student Reporter
People are often too busy with their life to pay attention to others around them. We all have to pay for insurance, quizzes to study for and other responsibilities we have to do and we may not have time to deal with the random kid at the grocery crying about their ice cream melting.
Feb. 17th is National Random Acts of Kindness Day. On this day, pause a little. Do something nice for somebody.
That kid that is crying, offer them an ice cream cone. It will make them be quiet, but it will also make that kid ecstatic. The child will thank you and smile, which will make you smile. You saved the kid’s day and made them think that people are really nice and that it is a nice world, which we can all hope to be true.
Another act of kindness you can do while you are at the grocery store is help an elder carry their groceries to their car. The lady may walk with a cane and have a basket full of groceries she slowly pushes. You are young and could easily push it for her, so why not do it? She will love it and you can talk to her. She may have awesome, funny stories she can tell you. Also, after you empty the cart put it in the designated place the store put out for the shopping carts to go, or bring it back into the store and put it up. The workers will be glad to not have to run outside and corral them all up to bring back inside.
The last one does not have an award like the previous two, but the point is to be kind, not get rewards of “thank you” from people.
Another act that yields no direct reward is paying for somebody else’s food as well as your own. The next person that goes to pay for their meal will be surprised by the kind gesture and it could make their day.
Another food related kindness is bringing donuts to work for everyone, or some other edible treat like cookies or coffee.
One problem that may stop people from the last few listed acts of kindness is that they may not be able to afford buying other people food. The money does not equal niceness.
You can pay a stranger a compliment about their attire, or stop by your old stomping grounds and tell a teacher you had how much you appreciate them, or some other person that was a mentor to you.
The day may be National Random Acts of Kindness Day, but we should do these every once in a while to keep the entire year full of random acts of kindness.