Now this is not my own idea. I heard on the radio a few weeks ago about a girl who did this exact same thing with her friends. And I thought it was so cool. I started brainstorming ideas, and as I got thinking I asked myself "How am I going pay for some of these random acts that I want to do?" I am a college student and I don't have a lot of money. Then I remembered I have a coin jar that I have been filling up for the last five years. It has recently gotten so big that they are overflowing out of the jar. I have saved any coins I get or find in this jar thinking that one day I would buy something really cool with it. But there is not really anything I need. I have everything I need. And so I combined the two things together and decided I would use the money from my coin jar (however much it is) and pay for the different random acts of kindness I will do. I took my coins to the coin machine today to have them counted, and I had $193. I couldn't belive it. I guess that's what 5 years of coin saving gets you. And so I have taken that money and budgeted it out amongst the different random acts of kindess to make sure I have enough money to do everything I want to do.
Here is my list of what I will be doing on the day of my birthday:
1. Take bag lunches to the homeless
2. Pay for someone’s dessert at a restaurant
3. Put money in a parking meter
4. Leave a nice note on someone’s car
5. Make cookies for people and deliver them
6. Donate food to the food bank
7. Leave change at a laundromat
8. Pick up trash at the park
9. Donate stuffed animals and drop off cookies to the fire department
10. Leave money at a bus stop
11. Donate diapers, baby bottles and formula to In road home
12. Leave bottles of Gatorade around the park with notes
13. Send a letter to a solider
14. Take popsicles to construction workers
15. Leave coupons around the grocery store
16. Drop off get well cards and toys at the children’s hospital
17. Send a just because card to a family member
18. Thank someone for doing something good (Police officer/Military Officer)
19. Leave a lottery ticket in a book at a book store
20. Handout flowers to people outside the grocery store
21. Compliment 10 people
I am really excited to be able to give back for my birthday. It means so much to me when I get to help other people. Now I know all of these are random. But the idea that I get to go around and make peoples day whether they know it or not makes me so happy. And I have my mom to thank for teaching me the act of service. She always said "You always have something to give to others no matter what you have." I have spent my entire life looking for ways to help others and this a cool opportunity that I have to take a day that is typically all about myself and make it about other people.