Small gestures of kindness can really go a long way, especially when someone is having a bad day. Everyone has bad days but do you ever have those days where you feel like the world is against you and absolutely nothing can go right? You woke up late, you put your pants on backwards and just as you were walking out the door (already 5 minutes late to work/class) you spill coffee/tea all over your outfit and then you have to go back and change, causing you to become even later than you already were. When your day starts off like this you may expect the day to be doomed and you just count down the seconds until something else bad happens or until the day finally ends.

This past year I have had a lot of days like this where I was having a terrible day, maybe even an awful week, and I just started counting down until it was time for bed or for the weekend to arrive. During these dark days, there were some glimmers of hope that other people provided me with through small acts of kindness. A few of these occurred when I first arrived at my new university and I was on crutches (due to tearing my ACL and having surgery for it the week before classes began).

Starting a new school in an unfamiliar place is always a little tricky and can be hard to adjust to. Try starting out a new school in an unfamiliar place on crutches! It adds a new twist to your new environment. So during these dark days, I really hated everything because crutches are a real joy kill. I stayed in my room for the most part of the first week or two of school. During that first couple of weeks what helped me know it was going to be okay were the small acts of kindness other people, strangers, did for me. Opening doors on crutches is a real struggle, let me tell you (I would do everything in my power to avoid doors and stairs), but what made it all okay was that there were some people who would hustle ahead of me to hold open the door for me or go out of their way to help me so that some things were not as hard.

One example of kindness that sticks out to me is from one my teammates, as soon as I got to the new campus, she saw me and came over to meet my family and looked down and saw my shoe was untied and she dropped down and tied it for me so I would not trip. I know those seem like minor acts of kindness but to me, they were big deals because it helped me feel less alone.

I was pretty scared about being left at school without my parents there to help me since I was on crutches and barely a week out of surgery. What if I fell or something happened and I needed them? Her helping me showed me that I had someone there who would help me if I ever needed it and that I was not truly being left alone. At work when someone goes out of their way to do a little extra, like cut up the lemons for me or help me roll silverware (even though they do not have to), I really appreciate that.

I admire when someone goes out of their way to help someone else, even if it is something small, it still matters. It may not matter to the person that did it, but it could have meant the world to whoever they did it for. It could have made their horrible day turn into an okay day that they can let go of and look forward to a better day tomorrow.

Basically, the whole point of this article is to say that if you are capable of doing something for someone else, no matter how small or insignificant you think it is, please do it. You honestly do not know what someone is going through and your small gesture or act of kindness could really turn someone’s day around.