Be the Good

Why aren’t we nicer to people, including strangers?

I know that our society has created this stigma that we ‘must’ act one way or we are not aligning with the expectations of society. We can’t call into work sick because our company needs us or we can’t ask for a raise because we should be willing to work without being compensated. If we don’t offer a lower price on Facebook Marketplace, we’re greedy. We are supposed to bend over backwards and take the shirt off our backs for those around us BUT don’t make eye contact with the homeless person on the corner. For what? Aren’t we all playing the same game just in different positions?

Now don’t get me wrong, I have the biggest resting b!tch face in the entire world. I definitely walk through the store with earbuds in so when I ignore someone I don’t look rude. However, I would absolutely bend over backwards and take the shirt off my back for someone in need. I donate change to the local fire station and I always let others go before me when in line checking out. I recognize that not everyone around me is having an amazing day. Prime example, my good days are far and few between. When I do have a good day, I try to make the best out of it.

It absolutely makes my day when someone walks past me and then turns around to give some form of compliment. I love doing the same thing for other people. We never know what someone might be going through. Again, prime example;I remember a very recent day, very clearly. I was walking through the grocery store and I was completely exhausted. Not exhausted as in wanting to take a nap because I had been up since 6am. I was exhausted in the sense that my body was hurting to the bones. I felt like I had been hit by a train! There were just a few things that I needed from the store (like toilet paper) so I stopped on my way home. It took forever to find a parking spot and when I did find one, it was forever and a day away from the door. –which would be fine if I were not in a horrible flare up– I went in the store and got what I needed then headed to the checkout. As I walked to the front of the store, I passed by the produce and a little girl with the cutest pig-tails and a bright red face whispered ‘I like your shirt’. I was wearing a BRIGHT yellow sweatshirt with ‘be the good’ written in the upper corner. I am sure the girl did not read my shirt and I know that she had no idea how miserable I was feeling (I’m pretty good at hiding that). Her saying that made my day so much better. She was ‘the good’ for me. It made it worth walking through the store in pain.

Because of that experience I want to challenge myself to give more compliments to others. I want to be the person that makes another’s day worth it. So, I also challenge you to be the person that makes someone else’s day. It could be a compliment to a stranger, it could be paying for someone else’s food (start a food chain), it could be anything and everything. For me, I am challenging myself to give one compliment out per day. I am going to try to help others feel ‘the good’. However, in order to do that, I have to ‘be the good’. I challenge you to do the same.