Author Spotlight
Katie Murphy
I reserve all my good deeds for National Say Something Nice Day, Good Samaritan Day and Kindness Week.
OK fine, that’s not completely true. But the principle of designating specific days to be more kind than other days is silly. Shouldn’t we be practicing kindness no matter the day?
In protest, I decided to ramp up my altruism on a holiday-less week of March — choosing four over-the-top acts of kindness to determine how much embarrassment I can endure in the name of good on an ordinary day.
Maybe my excessive do-gooding will remind others to be selfless on more than just National Random Acts of Kindness Day, even if it’s less extreme than holding the door open for 15 minutes.
Holding the main door to the school with a “Good Morning!” poster at 7:20 a.m. on a Monday isn’t something that I normally do. But I welcomed at least 200 students over a span of 15 minutes on March 6.
I timidly told the first lucky person who I held the door for that I hoped they were having a good morning. But as a constant stream of students walked in, my embarrassment faded, and I settled into rapid-fire greeting mode, exclaiming “Enjoy your first hour!” and “It’s a great day to be a Lancer!”
It was amusing to make my friends laugh in shock, while also getting strangers to crack a smile. Plus I only received one sassy eye roll in my 15 minutes of greeting — not too bad.
Part of almost every East student’s morning is the high-stakes hunt for a parking spot.
To ensure that at least a few students would secure those coveted front row spots and relieve some stress from their morning, I reserved spots for them — standing in parking spaces with a sign saying, “Reserved For You.”
This was undoubtedly awkward to execute, as I spent minutes waving the sign and getting passed or ignored by drivers. But ultimately, I helped direct four lucky students between the lines while complimenting their maneuvering skills. Then I gave them a smiley face sticker for their excellent parking jobs — because why not?
Their genuine chuckles and smiles — despite confusion — were worth my momentary cringe.
Teaching is a thankless job most days, so imagine the surprise on my teachers faces when I gave them flowers and a “Thank You” note on a random Monday.
One said the gift “made his day” and another carried the flowers in the halls because she liked them so much, making this my favorite act of kindness.
The sad part is that one asked me if it was Kindness Week — we really should be extending kind acts beyond holidays.
I thought I couldn’t be more embarrassed after my first three extravagant acts. Until I was ordering food in the cafeteria and asked to pay for the person behind me, and the lunch lady stared at me dumbfounded.
Thankfully, she understood that I was “paying it forward” for the stranger behind me after my second explanation.
Though the free-lunch beneficiary was grateful, this act of kindness was overall too painfully awkward to repeat. I’d recommend buying a friend lunch outside of school instead of perplexing the already-overwhelmed cafeteria staff.
Sure, it was entertaining to plot elaborate, good-samaritan, homemade-poster-involving schemes for the week — but it’s unsustainable. I can’t buy everyone lunch every day. But I can listen to others and check in on my friends. Please’s, thank you’s and smiles to friends and strangers matter — whether or not it’s a scheduled day for kindness.
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