Showing Gratitude

Everyday I am thankful for the life I live and the amazing opportunities that have been presented to me. I realize how blessed I am to have loving people around me and a good environment to grow in, to mold me into the person I am today. Normally, people show gratitude to the people closest to them, rarely is that shared with people they may not know.

   My friends, who are also my fellow classmates, Luke Haley and Nicole Allport, and I, decided to share our love and gratitude to those who we see around campus but not always fully acknowledge.  We cut out a tracing of our hands on cute designed paper and wrote inspirational quotes on them, then stapled them to popsicle sticks. As we walked around the halls we handed them to random students to brighten their day as well as give them some words of wisdom. It was the smallest gesture but it made those students happy, some looked confused as we handed the the paper hand stapled to a popsicle stick but at least it made their day somewhat exciting.
 
  It felt good to reach out to people I don't always talk to and make them smile. You never know what other people are going through, that simple smile in the hallway or the little exchange of a compliment can turn someones dark day bright. It feels good to be acknowledged by a stranger, so why not spread that love around. That is the problem with people now a days, they are so involved in their own busy lives that rarely do others reach out to new people. Working at Starbucks for a year and a half really showed me that very rarely do people share the love with others around them. I have had customers come in and buy five dollar gift cards to use on the people behind them or people that pay for the police officers in front of them. It is very interesting to see people acknowledge and reach out to complete strangers. That is fascinating to be apart of, and people really do appreciate those slight gestures. In a way, it is the " Pay it Forward" movement, having something nice happen to you and spreading that forward to another stranger. For example, the person in front of you on the bridge  pay your bridge toll, then you pay for the person behind you, then that person pays for the person behind them, so on and so forth. Point is that once that gratitude is shared it is more likely to be passed on. If everyone passed some sort of kindness, the world would be an endless cycle of gratitude. People need to stop and think about the people around them and acknowledge that everyone may need a little extra encouragement sometimes. Nothing bad can happen from spreading kindness to strangers.