24 Acts of Kindness Before Turning 24

I debated on even blogging about this but I felt like it was something that would be beneficial to others. I discovered throughout this process that God was helping me, rather than me helping others. About a week before turning 24, I came across a similar scenario dealing with Christmas time and acts of kindness. I thought this was a neat idea, and I wanted to do something different.  I never knew that this would turn out to be a HUGE life changer and an emotional roller coaster.  Since I have decided to share this, I am going to talk about some of my experiences and how selfish I felt at times…

1) Pick-Up trash in the park

-Ryder even helped me with this one! Skateforchange is an amazing program and it has inspired me to get Ryder involved in community service at such a young age

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2) Helped an elderly man pick up credit cards/money he had dropped

3) Pay for the car behind me

4) Write a letter to a friend

- I have always wanted to do this and never built up the courage. I thought about a friend who could really use a nice HAND WRITTEN letter and just poured my thoughts out. She was so happy and it made me feel good to know that I may have brightened her day a little.

5) Compliment someone in person

-How many times do you think to yourself, “Oh, I love her outfit!” or “This person is really sweet…” I think things like this all of the time. We can all look at someone and come up with one nice thing to say!

6) Pick-Up shopping carts around the Target parking lot

7) Hand out water to the homeless

-This was something I had wanted to do for a while but it’s hard living in a city where you don’t even know where to find the homeless at times.  We ended up going downtown near St. Josephs Diner and drove around handing out waters. My heart was filled with so much joy and to see how grateful people were, it was amazing! As we started to run out of people to hand out waters to, I drove more into the neighborhoods of that area. We eventually approached a street with three cop cars and one of the officers just stared at us. I clearly couldn’t pass due to the officers blocking the road and eventually one of them walked over and had me roll down my window. He asked what we were doing and with a huge smile on my face, I told him we were handing out waters to the homeless and asked if he would like one…he just laughed and said, “No thank you, and this is a bad area, you shouldn’t be near here.” I just smiled and said ok, rolled up my window, and cried…My exact thoughts were, why does it matter if we’re in this area? Because we’re white, females, too young, what was it? Obviously he was just trying to do his job but at that moment, I knew there was a higher power looking over us. I was LIVID and it made me think about how horrible this world can be sometimes. Even with having some negativity to this act of kindness, I still grew from it tremendously!

8)  Bring the hubby food for dinner while working a night shift

9) Smile at every person I walk past

10) Left money on a vending machine at the mall with a card

11) Fed the ducks at the park

12) Left a letter and a treat for the mail lady

13) Paid for a friends meal

14) Allowing cars to turn before me

15) $1 donations the stores who ask at check out

16) Book donation at BooksAMillion

17) Calculator donation for children in school

18) Dropped of diapers and children clothes to the Desormeaux Center

19) Brought clothes donations to the Men’s Shelter

- I’m not sure what happened with this one but I went from normal to a hot mess, real quick! I walked into the Men’s Shelter to drop off the clothes and all of the workers were SO NICE. All I kept thinking was that, “These people love what they do.” Even though they aren’t getting paid much, the services that they’re providing to those in need are clearly warming their hearts and those they are around. I left the Men’s Shelter with a smile on my face and as I was leaving, I passed by St. Josephs Diner and began BALLING. Literally…I was embarrassed with myself. As I was driving to the gym, I just kept thinking about how blessed I was and how much I take for granted.

20) Goodwill donations

21) Tipped the Starbucks worker

22) Brought food to two needy families

23) Passed out a dozen roses at the nursing home

- This may have been the hardest one for me. The reason being is that, I was not 100% comfortable with knocking on doors and handing strangers a rose. I had even thought about finding an alternative to this act of kindness but I decided to go through with it. I arrived at the nursing home and one of the workers provided me a list with people she felt needed a little something to brighten their day. My mom and I went door-to-door handing out the roses. (My mom was my security blanket through this haha) Each person reacted differently and I could tell I had caught him or her off guard. A few of them asked what organization I was a part of and I happily explained myself haha, and then some asked what it was for and I explained…I just wanted them to have a great day. Regardless of their reactions or understanding of what I was doing, it brought me at peace with myself. I am so blessed with the people I’m surrounded by and some of these people have no one.

24) Delivered goods for a family in need

I gained more from this than anyone will ever know and for that I am grateful <3