HOORAY! IT’S OFFICIALLY 100 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!
A few weeks ago, I was at work, waitressing by myself on a typical Sunday evening. Just before I was about to clock out, I found myself in a deep conversation with this one young woman. She was the only one left in the restaurant and the very last last table of the night. I don’t remember how we got on the topic, but she proceeded to tell me details about her rough past and how she has never let her bad experiences affect her outlook on life. Growing up, she remembered bringing her leftover boxes of food to the homeless across from her house, rescuing animals wandering the streets, volunteering at soup kitchens multiple times a week, and so much more. She moved and inspired me beyond words.
I went home that night and wondered, can one person really make a difference? Why exactly haven’t I taken the time to give back? What can I do to make up years of selfishness and materialism? I am 20-something years old, and most of kids my age are caught up in three things and three things only: money, schoolwork, and social lives. Consider changing your daily motives this holiday season. You are only one person, that’s true, but it only takes one person to inspire others, just like I was.
A movement specifically designed for college kids, each of these acts are completely affordable and realistic. Affordable in the sense that the budget can be kept under $100 for the entire season, and realistic because we’re all busy students with homework and commitments, so 100 days for 50 acts should certainly be doable for most. ‘The Big Things’ are considered more time consuming, so perhaps should be completed on a weekend, while ‘The Little Things’ don’t take much effort at all. Between now and Christmas Day, take the challenge and complete as many of these acts as you can!
THE BIG THINGS:
- Participate in Operation Christmas Child
- Volunteer at a soup kitchen
- Hand out blankets/hot chocolate to the homeless
- Ring the Salvation Army bell
- Get a group together to adopt a family for Christmas
- Take baked goods to the homeless
- Donate old clothes
- Volunteer at a hospital
- Actually try to rescue a stray
- Find/write to a pen pal
- Volunteer at a nursing home
- Cook dinner for your friends
- Walk dogs at an animal shelter
- Donate blood
- Bake cookies for your neighbors
THE LITTLE THINGS:
- Hold every door open, all day
- Rake your neighbor’s leaves
- Send someone an e-card on a gloomy Monday morning
- Give a Gatorade or soda to the mailman/mechanic
- Pay for the person behind you in line
- Sing a teammate’s/coworker’s praises to your boss
- Surprise someone
- Help out a drunk person
- Send someone a card in the mail
- Talk to a stranger
- Make someone’s day
- Help someone who needs it
- Do the dishes even if it’s not your turn
- Listen to and learn someone’s story
- Leave a generous tip
- Surprise someone with something on a bad day
- Visit your grandparents
- Give a compliment about a server to their manager
- Bake for a nursing home
- Make a CD and give to a friend
- Anonymously send flowers/cookies
- Shovel someone’s snow
- E-mail and thank a past teacher
- Let someone cut in front of you
- Talk to the shy person at a party
- Send a dessert to another table at a restaurant
- Talk to a homeless person
- Send your grandma a hand-written letter
- Be the DD
- Compliment someone in front of others
- Say ‘thank you’ to a janitor
- Text someone you haven’t seen in awhile and wish them a good day
- Drop some treats off at an animal shelter
- Sit by someone new
- Smile when you feel like scowling
Let's change the way millennials do things. Try giving instead of just receiving this year. The reward is so much more than you could ever imagine!
