Random Acts of Kindness Amelia Mary Earhart, an American aviation pioneer and author once wrote, “A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves”. One does not really need a special occasion or reason to say or do something nice. Sometimes something as simple as randomly telling your friend just how much better your life is with them in it can have a very drastic positive effect. In essence, when you give kindness you get happiness back. “Kindness means a behavioral response of compassion and actions that are selfless; or a mindset that places compassion for others before one’s own interests. In performing the selfless act, a person may undercut their own selfish interests” (Sreenivasan, Shoba. 2017). Kindness and love can be merely doing things without being asked to. For example, making a cup of tea for someone while they are too busy studying, or packing their lunch because you know they are running late. Love does not have to be expressed through some sort of grand gesture. The little gestures of compassion matter so much more. Research states that kindness is teachable and contagious. “It’s kind of like weight training, we found that people can actually build up their compassion ‘muscle’ and respond to others’ suffering with care and a desire to help” (Dr. Davidson, 2019) In addition, “the positive effects of kindness are experienced in the brain of everyone who witnessed the act, improving their mood and making them significantly more likely to “pay it forward.” This means one good deed in a crowded area can create a domino effect and improve the day of dozens of people!” (Random Acts of Kindness, 2019,) For this assignment, performing five acts of kindness was necessary. And this honestly should be a daily task, just imagine how much happier we all could be. Over the last two months, I have grown to do more random acts of kindness without even thinking about it. Though there is one act from childhood that seems to be second nature at this point and that is sharing my food or snacks. If I had a full pack of cookies I would ask people if they wanted some. But many people tend to reject my food out of politeness, in that case, I'd have to fully reassure them that it's ok and once I do then they would treat themselves to some with no problem. Though I would usually share food with people that I'm already familiar with, for this assignment I decided to push these further past acquaintances to strangers. Three out of five strangers accepted cookies from me when I was in an elevator. Some student who parked next to my car accepted a cookie from me as well. Overall, this really had no huge impact on me, though it did make me happy that I could give someone a little treat like on Halloween. Another random act of kindness I did was add some extra quarters in parking meters for people who had little time left or for someone who would take my spot to have an hour parking on me. Besides that, if I saw someone wearing a cool outfit or have nice shoes I would just compliment them. I will admit that it is a little embarrassing when the person doesn't hear you at first but when they do they tend to burst out with a big “OH, Thank You!” and start listing the stores that they got some of their clothing from. It tends to spread a contagious smile between both people. It is also important to help someone get out of an uncomfortable situation when you can. In my situation, a classmate was getting a little too close to another student and it was clear that the girl was getting uncomfortable from their interaction, so I decided to sit in between them so the girl could feel a bit more comfortable again. I mainly did this because I personally know the discomfort she felt. When she said thank you it made me feel like I did the right thing and totally erased the negativity I experienced from the person causing the discomfort. One of the last acts of kindness I will mention is sending friend appreciation letters, listing everything great about that person. This also made me feel happy that I could express my feelings to them and let them be reminded of just how great they really are. According to research from Emory University, when you are kind to another person, your brain’s pleasure and reward centers light up, as if you were the recipient of the good deed—not the giver. This phenomenon is called the “helper’s high.” (Random Acts of Kindness, 2019,) I recently found a quote on the internet that really stuck with me especially having this paper in mind, it goes like “If speaking kindly to plants can help them grow, just imagine what speaking kindly to humans can do” - Unknown. I truly believe that the good life is based on how much good you give out to the world and the effort you bring to create a fulfilling life that's good and happy for all. Giving out kindness into the world has many personal benefits like mentioned before one can get helpers high, along with this like most medical antidepressants, kindness stimulates the production of serotonin. This feel-good chemical heals your wounds, calms you down, and makes you happy! With the many bad things we see around us, it would be extremely beneficial witnessing acts of kindness that produce oxytocin, occasionally referred to as the ‘love hormone’ which aids in lowering blood pressure and improving our overall heart health. Oxytocin also increases our self-esteem and optimism, which is extra helpful when we're anxious or shy in a social situation. (Random Acts of Kindness, 2019,) “Kindness is a habit of giving—of wanting to lift burdens from others or to merely provide a helping hand or a shoulder to cry on. It humanizes us; it lifts us spiritually. And, it is good for us.” (Sreenivasan, Shoba. 2017). If I was to imagine myself later in life I would wish to see my goals of helping as much as I can to be a reality. My goal in life is to be able to create as many safe housing for lower-income people while also creating more environmentally stable buildings as I can throughout my lifetime. If this goal was to be completed I would hope it would give the people living in the houses I designed happiness and comfort as much as it would for me. I desire to be in a good place financially, not for personal wealth but for the number of things I could accomplish for others like investing in bettering the landscape and creating better spaces for communities to live in. Sadly money is something that would help tremendously in making big economic changes yet at the same time it's the main cause of misery in most people. There's no way around that, but positive change cannot be done with only money. It takes the kindness of the people to work together to hold an everlasting positive change. In conclusion, from helping people by being kind to them you yourself are benefiting from simply bringing joy to someone. No matter what the size of kindness is, it will always make a positive impact. People should do random acts of kindness daily, and use what they know academically to help others as well. A little kindness goes a long way and can grow into something bigger reaching out to more people. If everyone was kinder we all would live better, we would be more accepting of other small mistakes and grow healthier together.