This week’s challenge was to perform four acts of kindness for people I care about. This was to encourage me to show appreciation for the people in my life who go above and beyond for me. I am a person who is easily stressed out and overwhelmed, but I have a really amazing support system. My family, friends, and even my co-workers go out of their way to help me cope with any problem I am having, so this week was dedicated to showing them a small glimpse of my thankfulness for them.
The recipients of the week’s first surprise were my family. Both of my parents work full-time and because we have such a big family my mom spends a lot of time in the grocery store. On Monday night I finished work at four, so I immediately went grocery shopping so that I could make dinner. I messaged my mom before going so she didn’t go herself and told her to let me know if there was anything she needed. Admittedly I am not the best cook, but I know that my mom hates cooking so I thought I would give it a shot. I made honey garlic chicken tacos and popcorn shrimp for dinner. The shrimp definitely could have used improvement, but everyone was nice about it and thanked me anyway.
The next two acts I counted as half an act each because both of the people receiving my “kind deeds” deserve so much more than what I did for them. For example, my grandpa always drives me to the airport, fills my car up with gas, and surprises me by buying me food often. He is so thoughtful without even trying so I knew nothing I could do for him would be enough to express my thankfulness for him, but I still wanted to do something. I am going away for reading week, so he is keeping my car at his house while I am gone. I made sure to clean the car, filled it up with gas, and left him a Tim Hortons gift card on the dashboard of the car with a note begging him to use it.
The second half of this act was dropping off a coffee to one of my co-workers in the middle of their shift. This co-worker listens to all my problems, always tries to cover my shifts when I need it and has even come into work on his day off to help me when I’ve been left stranded in the store by myself. He is the embodiment of kindness, so I wanted to do something for him as well. I acknowledge how small these acts were, but I still hope that they brightened each person’s day at least a little.
My third surprise ended up being more of a fantasy than an actual success, but I did make an effort. One of my classmates and closest friends is also doing a kindness project for our course in non-violent communication. For her project she is becoming vegan for six weeks, but I know she is struggling with it. I wanted to try and surprise her with a vegan breakfast to cheer her up. The main problem is she is a chef and I very much am not. She has a cooking page where she posts incredible recipes, but I am satisfied when I make a mediocre sandwich. That was obstacle one, but I thought “I’m a university student, I can follow a recipe,” so I went off and purchased all my necessary ingredients to make vegan French toast. She was going kickboxing early Thursday morning, so I told her to come over to my house after and get ready for class with me. Thursday morning came and I woke up early to get ready and attempt my breakfast. As I was about to start the recipe, I tried to put my blender together, but a piece was missing. I searched all over the kitchen, called my mom, and asked my sister to help me look, but we could not find this piece of the blender. Thankfully we had lots of fruit and I made her avocado toast in a quick attempt to save it, but I was more than a little disappointed that my original recipe didn’t work out. Good thing I have an awesome friend who just laughed it off and still thanked me anyway.
My final kind act for the week was for my boyfriend. He deserves all the kindness in the world. For Christmas, he messaged one of my friends who creates the most beautiful digital art and asked her to draw an animation of one of our photos together. It was so beautiful and such an awesome gift, so my last project for this week was to go out and get two copies printed and framed. I kept one for myself but am giving the other as a gift to him.
I was very excited to do these projects because I love to surprise other people and see them happy. The hardest part was choosing what four things to do because when I was planning out my week, I realized I have so many people to be thankful for. I fully acknowledge that everything I did this week is incredibly small in comparison to what all of these people have done for me, so honestly, this week was more for me than them. Seeing each of their reactions to such minor gifts made it even easier to be grateful for them.
The Kindness Countdown 