You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

– “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

Let us face it, there are so many people in the world who live to ruin your day. And, there are so many times where life just is not fair. Trust me, I know.

Recently I have felt as if everything and anything has been ruining my day. If I talk to my parents, it ruins my day. If I see a car speeding to a yellow light, it ruins my day. Even if I see a dead bird on the ground, yep, you guessed it, it ruins my day. Now, I might be over-exaggerating just a little bit, but you get the point.

However, there was one moment this week that completely made me realize how stupid I actually was. One of my long time friends, out of the blue, messaged me on Facebook and began a conversation with me. Without me even realizing it, the conversation lead to her thanking me for sitting with her at lunch two years ago. Although it might sound pretty dumb to you, this completely blew my mind.

[vision_pullquote style=”1″ align=”center”] Soon I realized that her thanking me for such a small deed was exactly the reason as to why I was so happy. [/vision_pullquote]

I thought to myself, “Really?! That’s all you wanted to say? There isn’t something you’re going to ask of me or say something stupid? Come on, I know you want something, just spit it out already.” But in the end, we ended the conversation while I just sat there smiling to myself. I also sat there thinking to myself how stupid I was for smiling so much when all she did was thank me for such a small deed.

Soon I realized that her thanking me for such a small deed was exactly the reason as to why I was so happy. Moral of the story? The littlest things can have such a huge impact on someone’s day, night, or even week.

With society and its unfair rules and mishaps, people need a little “pick-me-up” to keep them going. Whether it be giving someone a compliment, or even giving someone money when they do not have enough, deeds like those could make anyone smile.

So I encourage all of the students to do the same thing. Give someone a compliment, help someone with their homework, or even give someone money if they need it. Make it random, make it nice, and make them smile.