Have you ever wondered how a small act of kindness can make an impact on someoone's life; just the smallest things, for instance: holding the door, leaving the change at the store or even saying hello to a person on the street. These are some small things we can do every day and yet we don't choose to. We live in horrible times, a lot of people are sad and lonley and there are so many problems around the world. Kindness needs to be spread.
I remember one Sunday, I was going home with my brother and we were late for the bus. The bus started so we began to run; the bus was slowly moving away from us. We thought we were walking that evening but suddenly, the bus stopped. We ran as fast as we could, and sure enough, we got on the bus. Even though we were thankful that we didn't have to walk that freezing evening, we still caught a cold. The gesture wasn't something hard for the bus driver to do, he just hit the brakes and that's all, but to my brother and me it ment a lot and it was nice to know that even a stranger could care about you. This moment showed me that kindness doesn't require effort or sacrifice, only awareness. Similarly, my family has shown me kindness: - Once I came back from school ; I remember that my day was very long and exhausting for me, and it was like my mom could sense that. She made me my favourite lunch and we watched movies the whole afternoon. Our parents and our families are best at doing these "acts of kindness". It seems as they just know what and when to do something to make us happy. What stayed with me was not the action itself, but the feeling of being seen and cared for. I always try to be kind and nice and it is really not that hard. Every day I try to do at least one act of kindness, and these acts are the simplest things, like greeting someone or helping my friends with their math homework. It's really a great feeling to know you made someone happy or even that you made someone's day. When I do something nice for someone, I feel useful and connected to that person in some way. You can see on people's faces how their mood changes when you at least politely acknowledge them. You can say kindness is contagious since it is spread so easily. Like Amelia Earhart said: "A single act of kindness throws roots in all directions." so lets try to do as many gestures and these acts of kindness as we can, and you never know, you might make an impact on someone's life. A lot of these experiences have taught me that kindness is not a grand gesture but a choice, a way of living. Kindness is truly rare in this materialistic world and it is constantly overlooked by expensive presents and grand gestures; but for kindness you don't need all of that, all you need is empathy, emotional contact and awareness of the people around you. Emotional contact is the thing people are short of. For example: when we go on a scool trip, everyone scrolls and plays on their phones, the atmosphere is really boring. But before, we used to play games, read, sing songs or even talk to each other. Amongst our generation, the younger generation, there is a huge lack of kindness, contact and affection; so I've come to a conclusion that people lack emotional contact with each other because of all the new technology and social media that are present in our everyday lives. Maybe that is the reason for so many lonely, sad and depressed people. With the release of the first social media platforms the numbers of children and young adults with social anexiety and depression in Europe grew exponentially. The numbers went from below 2 percent (around 10 million) to 8 percent (around 16 million) in a time span of fifteen years. This statistics is from a survey done in some countries in the Europen Union such as France, Spain and Italy. This shows while we are connected digitally, we are more disconnected emotionally. If being kind still doesn't sound tempting to you or you do not think that kindness is your thing, you don't have other choice but to get a dog. A dog is a perfect companion and an excellent way to train your confidence, self-esteem and most importantly, kindness towards strangers. Before I got my dog Bruno I was always shy and not really communicative, but after I got it everything changed. Bruno is a very social and active dog who forced me to engage into conversations with people during our walks through the park. With time I became more confident when interacting with strangers. Bruno did not only change my daily routine; he changed the way I see people myself. Through him I learned that kindness can be practiced and developed, even when it feels uncomfortable at first.
All these experiences throughout my life, small gestures from strangers , care from my family and even a dog have taught me the same lesson. In the end, kindness isn't somesthing extraordinary; it's just the simplest things that we can do every single day like helping friends, calling our grandparents or greeting a neighbour when we meet them on the street. Kindness doesn't cost money, it doesn't take time or talent; and still the impact can be life-changing. Even in the large cold world there is hope. None of us is expected to step up and change the world alone. One person can't do all that. But we all have to participate. All we need to do are these smallest acts of kindness because they can certainly make the world a better place. Kindness is a choice, a choice we can make every single day. - And if we choose to be kind we might be surprised to how it changes us, and how it changes the world.