KINDNESS. IT’S COOL. TRY IT.

Kindness. It’s an important trait to have but, for some reason, some people find it difficult to be such. I mean, we all have no problem showing kindness to the people we love. The difficulty arises when it comes to showing kindness to the people we don’t like. I’m sure you are all familiar with the quote “kindness makes the world go round”. I’m not sure exactly what this quote means, but I assume it has something
to do with being kind to everyone we encounter in our lives. But how do we show this trait, when we find it difficult to do so? But first, a little background. Being kind to people has always been important to me. When I was a student and received my report cards, my teachers
would always write “Trishna is a pleasure to have in class” or something along those lines. The reasons as to why I was a ‘pleasure to have in class’ included my helpful nature and the way I treated all my classmates. I remember one time in the 6th grade when a classmate and I were paired up with a student—who was deemed as “troubled”—for a project. I later overheard my teacher saying that she paired me and my
classmate with that student, because she trusted us to not make fun of him or get annoyed by him like the other students might have. As a youngster, I was quite shy. I didn’t have many friends in school, but I made it a point to treat everyone with decency. As I grew older, being nice to others just grew in importance. I have touched on this before so I won’t go into details but, when I lived in Belgium, I was bullied
in school for a year and a half. I absolutely HATED the way I was treated by some of my classmates and I hated how badly their treatment made me feel. And what made it worse is that I hadn’t done anything to them; I mean, I had only been at the school for a week before everything began. But I had decided that I was never going to let anyone feel how I felt. So I made it a point to welcome every new student to our grade and make sure they were happy at the school. Now, seven years after graduating from that school, I am only in touch with a handful of my classmates—but at least I can say that I always treated everyone with kindness. Now that I am adult, living and working in the real world and gaining an idea of the people that live in it, I find it even more important to be kind. This is especially the case in the divisive and difficult times we are currently living in. Yesterday I saw an interview from an actress and author, Candace Cameron Bure, who spoke about the importance of being kind (which is where I got the inspiration for this tidbits from) and how being kind “starts with you.” This resonated with me very deeply. In the world we are currently in, filled with people of different political views and different opinions about
the issues, it’s so easy to be rude, judgmental and hateful. I wouldn’t say that I am Democrat/Republican or Conservative/Liberal because
I prefer to take each issue as an individual one and form my own thoughts on them. Plus, although this is such a millennial thing to say, I don’t like being labelled and I believe everyone has a bit of each within them—for example, I agree with some points of Democrats and
some points of Republicans, just as I agree with some points of liberals and some of conservatives. But, I admit, I used to be the person who
would silently judge someone who had an opinion that didn’t match mine. But I have realized that this is wrong. A person who supports a certain political person or viewpoint should not be judged based on that, because one’s political views are just a part of who they are. And that’s why I am now working on showing kindness to everyone, even the people who have views I am in complete disagreement with.
Why? Because, at least by showing decency to them, we could start a conversation on why they have those viewpoints. By actually talking and coming to a middle ground, would definitely make the world a better place. Please ignore the cliché. I have also heard that, when you admire a trait in someone, you should try to embody that trait within yourself. One thing to know about me is that I like the entertainment world. And there are certain celebrities I like, not only for their talents, but for the fact that they are genuinely good people. I mean from what I
have seen and from experiences fans have had with them, these particular celebrities have always been credited as being polite, decent and respectful to everyone around them. So if these are traits I admire so much in them, and in other people in my life, then the only logical thing is to be like these people. But being kind can be a work in progress. It’s especially difficult to be as such when you are having a difficult day. I speak from experience because, there are certain days I just wake up in a bad mood, and then I take it out on people and then I regret it. And
when you are having one of these days, I suggest doing something that puts you in a good mood. I like going on long walks with my music or watching a funny video to put me in a better mood. Sometimes I will sit alone in my room and not interact with people because I would rather be to myself than hurt people unintentionally. I like to think I have always been a nice person but there is always room for improvement. And in the past few weeks I have been working on bettering myself. That said, I know there are times where it is basically
impossible to show kindness. Yes, I am talking about internet trolls. And with these people I say, just ignore them. They say certain comments to get a rise out of others and to get attention. I like to say something like “I hope whatever is bothering you in your life, that is causing you to be so hateful to strangers online, gets solved,” before blocking them. I refuse to let a stranger ruin my mood and I refuse to let them make me someone I do not want to be. Plus, you never know the type of day someone is having. A person could be having a miserable day and your being kind should just turn their day around. So let’s all make it a point to go out there, every day, and just be decent to everyone we come across. Because it truly does “start with you”. And I believe that kindness has a ripple effect. If you show kindness to
someone, they will want to show it to someone else and the pattern will continue. It sounds so simple, but let’s just try it. Starting now and everyday—let’s be good people, let’s be polite people, let’s be respectful people. Let’s be kind.