Sunday, May 9, 2010

#10 - Mothers Day

So, today being Mothers Day, I devoted my day to spending time and helping my mom in every way that I could. I helped her around the house and then later on my dad and sister accompanied my mom and I to dinner. We attempted to go to a restaurant called The Melt in Lakewood, Ohio, but it was too busy and there was a very long wait. Instead we went to another restaurant in Cleveland called The Harp (a very nice Irish Pub) and enjoyed a meal there. After that we drove around and and spent some time together.

Later on, after are return home, I helped my dad with some troubles he was having with his new MacBook as he is new to it and doesn't understand how to work everything, heck I've had one for almost two years and some things are a mystery to me.

I do not feel defeated in my goal of doing the amount of deeds I have set myself up for, I just need to start expanding on what I do, and I think that tomorrow I will start doing that, but you will have to wait for my next post to find out what the is :)

I hope all you mothers out there had a fantastic mothers and and I hope that all you children honored your mothers in the way they should be.

Cheers!

Friday, May 7, 2010

More Updates... : #7, 8, and 9

As my last posting said, this past week has been finals week for me at by school, so I was fairly busy with studying and stuff like that. This is going to be short because I am really tired right now.

So in the same format of my last post:

Wednesday: I bought a meal for someone. (not a stranger, but it still counts)

Thursday: Helped someone move out of their room.

Today: Today I really don't know what to count it as. I feel like if I count what I am thinking of counting as my deed, it would be cheating, but at the same time, I haven't done anything else today because of the nature of my day. Anyhow, to the story. When I got home from school today with all of my stuff I came home to my family leaving to go to my sisters confirmation (I would have gone, but I was running late in my arrival and it just didn't work out). After resting for a little bit I told my grandma, who lives with my family, that I would be coming and going out of the house because I was going to be unloading my car. Her response to that was a very long winded way (you know how old people are) of saying that she loves the fact that she is able to live with us and watch my grow as a young man and that I brings her great joy.

After this past week of not knowing when I was actively doing anything to help other people I have come to realize that being the person that I am, I am doing nice things for others, just that is because I am who I am. So even though I may not be aware of what I am doing, the things I do in my normal day could totally change the life of someone. But that is not the goal of this project. My goal is to actively do something for someone every day.

Until next time...

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Updates: #4, 5, and 6

So if you have been keeping up with this blog, you would notice that I have not made a post since last Saturday. Fear not though, I have been doing my acts of kindness, I just have not been updating this because of my finals this week at college.

So here are the things that I have done since then:

Sunday - I was still at home from coming home over the weekend. I was working on something, what it is not escapes me at this moment, but my mother needed help to go pick up a futon that she bought from Craigslist. She had asked my brother to go earlier that day, but all he was doing was sitting around doing nothing. So finally with only an hour left before the person we were picking this up from would be unavailable, I went with my mom to pick it up.

Monday - Today I was at a loss on what to do. So after my finals were done for the day, I was contemplating what to do. After much thinking, I decided to leave an anonymous motivation message to one of my friends who has been going through some hard times lately.

Today - Being the end of the semester at school and not having the ability to have my meal plan roll over to next semester (I have my own grievances against the school for that) I decided that I would buy some things for some people who are low on meal plan. I gathered a few of my fraternity brothers from the house and bought them what they wanted from the meal plan friendly store on campus.

These things are not what I was aiming to do with this goal that I have, but none the less I am actively trying to make the world around me a better place. As I mentioned, I have a large amount of meal plan left, so before I leave campus on Friday I am going to buy things for people if I can.

More to come later!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Others succeed where I fail

So today, I was not able to achieve my goal of doing one random act of kindness for someone. That does not mean that I am going to give up on this site or that I am a failure. My heart is in the right place and I will always help others or do something nice if the opportunity is given.

On that note, I am not discouraged. Today I found out that other people have been doing acts of kindness for people. I was talking to my mom today, and she said that while she was at the checkout in the store she was behind a female that appeared to be college aged and an elder lady who was in the middle of paying for her purchase. This elder woman was looking around her purse for the reminder of the bill, which was only $3. After a few minuets and only finding a dollar my mom started to reach for her purse to give the lady the reminder, but before she could do so, the girl ahead of my mom paid for the elder woman. Another thing that I was told about was from my cousin. While he was driving the other day her saw a hitchhiker. At first he did not pick the person up, but after a few minuets of driving, he decided to go back and offer a ride. Unfortunately when my cousin got to the spot, the person was gone, and some unknown driver must have picked him up.

Even though I did not do anything of worth today, it makes me happy to see that others are doing kind things for strangers.

I have really been thinking a lot lately and I am not sure how far this is going to go. I know that the person I am will always do its best to help others, but will it get to a point where I am not making any effect. I know the slightest things can make all the difference in the world. I just want to make a positive impact on the world before I go. I wonder how many others there are like me and if they feel the same way? I never want to know what the world would be like if I never existed or had a different attitude about people. I am the way I am because I am meant to do things like this.

No matter what happens in my life I know that I am doing the right thing. Everything happens for a reason I feel, and good things are happening, I just have to look for them.

#3 - Sometimes Things Just happen

So today was the last day of formal classes before finals at Bowling Green. The car that I use while at school is a smaller car, so I decided to take home as much of the stuff in my dorm as I could. Another reason for my return home is that my high school was opening its spring musical, West Side Story, tonight, so myself and a few friends from high school decided to go tonight.

All day today I was busy finishing last minuet things for my classes. Because of that I was stuck in my room most of the day, and then I had to make a two hour drive home, in my car, by myself. I was hoping that on my way home I would run into someone that needed car help, but nothing like that happened. I was running late so I had to go directly to the school to catch the show in time. I had some time to spare so I picked up one of my friends that was on the way.

Before I continue with the story for today, I would like to inform all of you readers of part of my past. In high school I was a large component of the performing arts department. In the theatre I my focus was technical stuff. Because of all the hard work that I would always put in, people think highly of me. Add that to the various other things I did, like Boy Scouts (I am an Eagle Scout) and being very involved in my school, I was sort of a local celebrity. My senior year of high school it came to a strange head when one day people just started to applaud me whenever thy saw me. Needless to say I was well liked by everyone.

Anyways after the show, which was very well done, I spoke to some of the teachers I had and the directors I had worked with in my time at the high school. All of the cast members that I saw and spoke to were very surprised and happy to see that I had made it back to see their show, many of them being seniors so this was a big thing for them.

After talking with many people and reminiscing of the past my friends and
I went to a local restaurant to catch up for a while. While there one of my friends got a text message from her mother, whom was the director of the show we had just seen, saying "please tell the guys it was amazing to see them all tonight. it really makes me happy to see my true tech team still together and enjoying our shows". So she found it very nice that we stopped by to see her and her show.

Also, during our little outing I was having a texting conversation with one of the girls that I knew in the cast. Not to bore you with the minor details, I agreed to spend some time with her and her boyfriend after the show the next night. after seeing that she replied that she hadn't been this excited to see people in a long time.

By and by, I will take these events as my acts of kindness for the day. Unfortunately, I have still not been able to help out strangers like my intention was, but there isn't much I can do about that for now. While I was eating with my friends after the show I told them about this blog I m doing and how I want to make a positive effect on the world and that I had been stressing all day about I could do to make this day worthwhile for others. One of my friends said that I shouldn't look to hard into it and to just let things happen as they do, so in other words, if I am not able to complete a act of kindness for others, not to worry about it because I could have a day where I do many things instead of just one.

All in all I have a feeling that after I leave Bowling Green for the summer and return home for the summer, I will be able to have a greater effect on people. My friends and I often frequent a somewhat local amusement part, so I have faith that I can do good there. I am also thinking of notes and things like that I can send out to random people or leave in books at the library and so on.

I have faith that whatever it is I am doing, I will make some change in the world, no matter how small.