Moday (last blog entry!)

Well, this is it. I spent most of last night proof reading and helping hunter finish her college application (it was finished at 11:53pm, 7 minutes before the deadline). It has been one hell of a stressful day, but we got it done and everything worked out.

I gave out, or at least tried to give out, my cookies to Mrs. Traverso, Ms. Proctor, and Mr. Lamerato. Unfortunately, Mrs. Traverso has Crohn's disease, and so she can't eat cookies, and Ms. Proctor and Mr. Lamerato both refused because "it was part of their job to help me out." Well, I thanked them, and that was that....

Also today, as Mom and I were picked up dinner, we accidentally backed up into a car behind us. My mom was furious, since she had so much work to do and couldn't afford an increase in insurance payments. There didn't seem to be any real damage, but we waited around anyway for the man (who's car was parked) to come out of the restaurant. He came out a few minutes later, we explained what happened, and without even glancing at his car he smiled and said, "It's alright. It happens to all of us, don't worry about it." And he drove away. I was really touched that he just believed us and seemed non-nonchalant about the whole thing. Had he wanted, we would have gave him all our info and whatnot, but he was just incredibly nice about the whole thing.

What it means.

Well, since the project is heading towards its end, I thought I would use this opportunity to reflect on my progress, and what this daffodil project really meant to me.



Now, this project hasn't always been easy.  I've been swamped with other projects and assignments, and it seemed like the daffodil project often took a backseat to everything else. It even started to seem tedious at times. However, I think this project has really shifted my thinking on kindness. Doing nice little things has become less of a hassle, and more of a reflex; I take pride in brightening up someone's day.

Also, though, I have been working more on my attitude. I've come to realize that my own behavior has wide reaching impact on others. If I am happy and content, others will be too. If I am depressed and irritable, on the other hand, it brings everyone else down.  So, I think out of all of this, I've just become more happy with myself, and it seems like it has been spreading.

I think my interpersonal relationships have been strengthened by this project as well.  As I have been searching for ways I could help out my friends, I have been bonding with them more than usual. And even people I haven't known very well, I have started to hang out with and start lasting friendships. Also, I have strengthened my relationships with the lunch ladies, hall monitors, and janitors. Many students ignore these staff, and I've felt it was my duty to show that they are appreciated, and I've come to really like them. They are great people, and I have had some wonderful conversations with them.

Well, I think on the whole, I have done some real good in this project. Even though some of my projects have been directly about issues important to me (and so were more politically focused), I feel like I still improved the lives of the people around me.

Sunday... I need more creative names for these posts

Well, today has been fairly slow, and mostly family oriented. I was woken up ay 7:00 in the morning by Hunter (my sister), with a question about the common application. She has been so stressed out lately, and so worried about her tough class load and part in the musical, that she has procrastinated as long as possible with her college applications. She has already sent one in (to MSU), but Tuesday is the early action deadline for her first choice school, Wooster in Ohio. So, I've spent most of the day helping her through her application and editing her essay, which has been kind of hard, since I have huge axiety over the whole admissions process...

My mom helped me bake cookies today, and I'm going to bring in a few for Mr. Lamerato and Mrs. Traverso, since they've helped me deal with college admissions emergencies, and Mrs. Traverso may need to do so again with Hunter. Besides, they have so much on their plates already, it might be nice to give them a cookie to brighten their day. Especially at the end of a trimester, as they have to be swamped with work right now.
Random Good Stuff
I picked up my little brother from Hebrew school
A man accidentally knocked over part of a clothing rack at Kohl's, and I helped him put everything back.
I was very nice to a waitress that messed up my order, and I told her not to worry about it.

Occupy Detroit!

Well, today was the big day. My sister, Ella, and I went down to Occupy Detroit for a few hours, and it was quite the experience. It was crazy, chaotic, disorganized, yet totally genuine, energetic, and welcoming (just to use some of my favorite adjectives). We got down there a little before noon, meet up with our friend louis, and walked around the encampment for a while. There were about 60 tents strewn around Grand Circus Park, all clustered around the central fountain. There was a library tent, a medical tent, a press tent, and even an outdoor kitchen to serve food. It was really incredible to see how sophisticated a "city" occupy Detroit had become. But it is the people that really make Occupy Detroit. They are an eclectic group: socialists, anarchist, libertarians, feminists, yet all were inviting.

First off, we started with the General Assembly (GA), with along 200 other people. This is the decision making body of the occupation, where each person is given equal voice. It is based around consensus; a simple majority is not enough to get anything passed, but rather any proposal can be rejected if a significant number of people are adamantly against it. Well, the GA centered around loosing their permit to live in Grand Circus Park. They were trying to decide whether to stay at the park and resist the police, or to leave the park and find another place to occupy.

Well, everyone in the crowd broke off into inclusive small groups to discuss the issue, and then each group sent up a representative to report back to the group. Then, anyone who wanted could bring up a proposal to be debated and voted on by the group. This was direct democracy at its finest. It got a little tedious at times, and occasionally chaotic, but everyone was represented, and it promoted a great sense community, even for people who just came to spend the day, like me.

I didn't really get a chance to volunteer much. The GA went on a lot longer than I thought (3 hours), and my sister and Ella were getting a little uncomfortable down there, so we left early. To be fair, there were several mentally ill and homeless people in the encampment, and there were acting overly "friendly" towards Ella and Hunter. One man kept trying to grab my coat and Ella's bag. So, we tried to stay in the middle of the group, and there were plenty of people walking around keeping an eye on everything.

Now, for the daffodil project stuff. Well, I didn't get to volunteer, but I still did my best to do good. The groups were all very touchy feely, and I hugged and made friends with several of the protesters. When we were sitting down, I gave up my seat and ended up standing in the back. Several mentally ill people were in the crowd, and I talked with a few and was friendly. Also, during the general assembly, a few women were trying to remove a man smoking a joint in the middle of the park, and he started accosting them. They yelled and called "safety", but most people didn't hear them. So, a few others and I yelled out for help, and half the GA ran over to help out. It got solved quite easily afterwards. Finally, I donated the money I had to help out the cause, and I am going to write an article about the movement for the school newspaper to help popularize the occupation. I guess some of this is just satisfying my political leanings, but I feel like I did at least a little good out there.

Thrusday

Today was a pretty good day. I carried on my day like normal, doing a few acts of kindness here and there, but I think my real focus was improving my attitude. Since we've been watching "What the bleep do we know?", I've been thinking a lot about how attitude shapes yourself and the world around you. Water, it was shown, is very responsive to a person's intention and feelings, and the molecules within the water order themselves accordingly. Even more, it was also shown that desiring a specific result, like an imbalance of heads or tails while flipping a coin, actually makes it more likely to happen. Well, I feel like I should apply this to my own life. I've been stressed out and a little short tempered lately, so I've made a real effort to have a positive attitude throughout the day. I haven't felt particularly energetic or healthful recently, but these last few days I have started genuinely feeling better. But, even more so, I've felt that I could use this attitude to help others.  Happiness is contagious, and so I felt that the best way to "pay it forward" was to help influence other people positively. And so far, I think it's been working, at least a little.

So, yeah...

Well, my act's of kindness thing today was kind of a fail. I did start the day trying to complement everyone, but as the day went on I started doing it less and less. My complements just felt kinda forced, even though I genuinely believed every one. I think the more you try to force and pre-plan a "random" act of kindness, the less meaningful it becomes. Removing sarcasm for a day was more of an attitude shift than an act of kindness, and so it helped me be a little more considerate for a day.  The individual little complements and actions were all completely genuine then. So, I think for the moment I'll abandon my "kindness quota", and try instead to focus on a few big acts, while taking advantage of all the small opportunities I have to do something nice.

On another note, I think for the next few days I'll just list some of the little things I've done that don't merit a full post, just so my blog looks more full and important.

Nice Stuff I Did Today
I drove a friend to work so she wouldn't have to walk in the rain
I filled in for another group's acting presentation on Hamlet during English class
I answered the door for a kid selling newspaper subscriptions for college money, and I took one of the order forms and let him get out of the rain for a minute.

Evil Stuff I Did Today
Invaded Iceland (again)


So, the next real planned out thing I have lined up is going to Occupy Detroit. While I have my own motives for going there, I think it would be nice for me to help out (with either first aid, or food, or various comfort stuff), and maybe I'll even bring some blankets and books. Other than that, I'll just see what comes up and what I can do.

Say No Evil (Follow-up)

So, it was interesting trying a day with no insults, joking or not. I think, on the whole, it's impact was positive: I was kinder to others, I thought out the possible consequences of my actions,and I felt a little more calm and level headed than normal. I even had a couple people come up to me and tell me how nice I was. However, I still don't think being sarcastic is detrimental to a friendship. It can even be helpful, as it can establish a humorous familiarity between two people.  I think the real reason I seemed nicer that day was because being kind or sweet was the best way I could think of to interact with people without being facetious. So, tomorrow at school I'll try to tweak this experiment a little. Instead of not being facetious, I will try to complement (or do some nice deed for) everyone I have a conversation with tomorrow.  That way, I'll directly be focusing on being nice, without having to sacrifice the fun of being sarcastic and obnoxious :)