So last Wednesday was unbelievably awesome! By the end of the day I was exhausted and more than ready for some rest. My day was slammed full with Random Acts of Kindness (RAOK) and it was an amazing experience. I'm going to start updating about what my day was like, but I want to keep the posts short so I am only going to post a few of them at a time. 18 RAOK is quite a lot to write and read about.
Let's start at the beginning. . .
At 12:00 am (the official start to my birthday) I started distributing the cards that I wrote for the people that live in my dorm building.
ROAK 1. Write a thank you card to every Resident Assistant and my Resident Director in my dorm building.
ROAK 2. Write an encouraging card to every girl that lives on the half of the hall I live on.
That's 31 cards in all. Yes, when I finished my hand was blistered and my brain lacked words, but it was a challenge that I needed. I thought- other than a hand cramp or two- I would be able to do this without any trouble.
I sat down at my desk with 3 different kinds of cards, some envelopes, and a pen. It wasn't until I started writing the cards out that I finally realized what a challenge this would be. There are some young ladies I have only shared a smile and a quick exchange in passing or I have never met them at all.
Its a challenge to write to people you barely know. I was tempted to fall into the usual impersonal cheery "Go You!" attitude that most of us get when we are told to interact with strangers. I tried my hardest to refrain from this because this was not what I had set out to do. I wanted to encourage these ladies with real words- not hand them a fortune cookie that says, "Live life. You will do great things."
I set out to encourage some pretty amazing ladies that live near me and that was exactly what I was going to do. So I wrote what came to my mind and my heart. If one of these young ladies has a beautiful smile that never fails to encourage me or a sunny personality then I put that in the card. It was a challenge, but in the end I realize that there are some ladies that I should make a bigger effort to get to know and encourage in person every day not just this one day.
With all 31 cards in hand, my roommate and I set out to deliver each and every one of them. This was a lot fun because my roommate was also studying for a test so we reviewed her note cards with every card we dropped off. It was hilarious.
Here are some pictures of the cards in the hallway:
I have heard a few of the stories from the young ladies who received a card from me. As a matter of fact, one young lady ended up finding my card at an exact moment when she needed some real encouragement. I was so overwhelmed to hear these stories because it was a wonderful reminder to me that this was exactly what God was leading me to do. This was beyond worth the hand cramps and the blisters.
I crossed two more RAOK off my list that night also.
ROAK 3. Place change on the drink machines in my building.
I got the idea off The Birthday Project's website. You place change in an envelope on a drink or snack machine. Our building has 2 main machines so I split the money. I attached a card that I put with every RAOK that explains why I did this. (These cards were purchased from The Birthday Project.)
My sister is selling bracelets to raise money for her summer mission's trip and half the money goes to those who have been saved from human trafficking in the Philippines. I bought two and decided that I would surprise 2 fellow freshman ladies that live in the other female freshmen dorm building. I chose a random dorm room and stuck it on their door. To my surprise, I had actually chosen a freshmen that I had a class with last semester and her roommate that I recently met in an interview group. Oh well, I guess it wasn't quite that random after all. Ha!
And that is the first hour and 4 RAOK on my journey. It was just the start of a beautiful day!
Brooke
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