| When I was in college, well, before college even I was poor. I grew up poor, lived poor, was part of the society that newsertainment professionals like Morgan Spurlock or Barbara Ehrenreich just love to infiltrate to show how hard off it is. Yes, I lived in a car for a while, ate McGarbage. My brother and I dumpster dived as children fit into the giant trash containers behind supermarkets much easier than adults do.
What made us happy were the simple things, kindness. I loved if, in school, my teacher gave me a new pencil (imagine, just for me!) or a friend gave me a sticker she found or we found cookies somewhere. Cookies- such a luxury! Those were the things that made my world a better place – acknowledgment of my existence, of kindness out there in the big world, which at the time seemed suffocatingly small.
So in college, I took that mentality of simple things. I lucked out, got a scholarship to a big New York City university. You can kind of imagine my Arizona poor mindset suddenly in with the ‘Richies' – they thought I was a bit crazy. I went from a place where one hundred dollars could feed a family of four for a month to a city where that barely covered a meal for two, or worse, if you go by the spending habits of my freshman year roommate, was one-quarter the price of a pair of jeans. Needless to say, she and I didn't hang out that often.
But I still had that idea of how simple kindnesses can affect someone's day, and now had some actual loose change. I would buy stickers or these smiley face buttons and hand them out to random people, those who looked like they needed a smile. At first, my college friends found that a bit nutty. But when they saw how a sticker given to the man at the McDonald's register totally changed his attitude (from robotic and depressed to smiling and laughing with us) they realized that I wasn't as crazy as they initially thought.
It is these simple things that make us human, and it is the greatest power within all of us, to just be kind. When there is no money to buy stickers, or pins, or simply pay for the next two people behind you in line for pizza (a simple 4$), then there is always time for a compliment. On one occasion, I was at K-mart and the woman at the register had the most intricate hair braiding. I did what everyone should do – not keep positive thoughts to themselves- and told her how gorgeous it was. Imagine my surprise when she openly wept. She had been so proud of her hair, having saved up to have it done, and no one in her family had said anything about it, I was the first.
This contest, as it appeared in my inbox, asked how 100$ could help change the world. Some may think that that amount of money is too little, but there is no such thing when kindness is involved. Just by merely allowing positive thoughts to pass on to another person you are changing the world. Never be afraid to tell someone how you feel (even if they are strangers). Simple random acts of kindness can hold more power than you realize. Just the act of handing some stranger a flower can brighten their day, and who knows, maybe it will cause a chain reaction.
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