I've been told throughout my entire life that being kind is a waste of time. Positivity is never touched upon when I learn things in school, and whenever an act of kindness tries to reach it hands out to the world, most fall back into pits of despair. Let me tell you a little something about being kind. It's not as cliché and disgusting as some may call it. Kindness isn't just a weak way for someone to try to connect and make the bad feel good again—it's actually much more than that. Kindness is indeed a virtue that many people should live by. It's something that has saved a countless number of lives time and time again. It has shown to be creative in the ways it is executed through different people. I show kindness through words and actions while others show it through writing and public speaking. Kindness has no bounds and the number of kind people start to grow slowly everyday, but sadly the numbers dwindle drastically as well, more times than I'd like them to.

Kindness is something not everyone is born with, I will give you that. It's something that builds up in a person's character and grows throughout their time on earth, but that's not something to put someone down for. In fact, it's the act of neglecting kindness that makes matters worse. You might be thinking that that's wrong, but who's to say I'm wrong when nothing has been done to prove right? Who says that I can't keep my head above water and try to live life with a golden heart? Why should kind acts be considered weak if they aren't violent or forceful? I know that kindness has its flaws, but doesn't everything else have a flaw as well? Hasn't that been proven enough times throughout our history? The constant squabbling and pointless murders that occur. The fear of losing strength—does that give us any right to rip each other apart? That's what the enemy wants us to do! They are feeding us negativity when we should be countering with positivity. With kindness and love!

Now, I'm not saying you have to love each and every person; I'm an optimist, yeah, but I can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. I know that that will never be achieved, but showing respect to the fact that someone's got a different opinion from yours is an act of kindness, and that's what's not being done enough of. I could ramble on and on in incoherent sentences about how we should do this and we should do that but the thing I'm questioning is why? Why should that be considered weak and wrong?

My strength comes from me being kind. It's the fact that I'm not scared to stand for my rights and beliefs while everyone else bows down before an unjustly king. While many people push others down without a second thought, I lift those people up. I offer them a hand even if it is seen as a sin. I will admit that I did ramble on and jumped from point to point, but hey, I'm not perfect. I understand that to some I'm just a voice lost in the wind, but to me I am the voice that makes the wind roar like thunder. And you're probably wondering after reading all this, "What does this have to do with being kind?" I might have used that as a way to get my actual point across. It's not solely on the fact that being kind to a vast majority is considered weak. I know it is: I've been told that that is a flaw of mine. I've been told that the fact my heart is golden is what will be my demise. I guess you could say this is just some giant essay about how I'm done with the negativity I'm given and you know what, you're right. I am done with the negativity. It's times like these when I'm given the opportunity to voice my opinion that I get fired up. The flame in my heart burns bright and the words I flood onto the page I want to have a sense of passion behind them and I want my audience not only to see that but to feel that as well.

That's why I am kind. It's the same sensation of writing something that could be big one day that powers my want and desire to be kind, and that's why it's not a weakness. That's why genuine kindness is one of the strongest things you can give and you can feel out there. Those who call my kindness weak are very much wrong, and I'm only sixteen. Imagine what I can do with kindness twenty, fifty, maybe even seventy years from now, and it doesn't stop there! The best thing about kindness is that it lasts forever, floating from

generation to generation. Negativity has one major flaw and it's that the sensation doesn't last forever. The flaw of kindness, in that sense, has yet to be revealed. Go on. Try to prove it to me. I dare you. Find a way to prove that the feeling of kindness hasn't touched you in some way. Prove to me that you haven't thought about kindness at least once in your life and that it hasn't made you feel different in some way. Find me that person, and then we can talk about why kindness is the strongest feeling of all.