World Kindness Day

By Makenyze O'Dell

November is well known for Thanksgiving. That might be the only thing you think of when November comes around, but there are a lot of other holidays with November for example World Kindness Day. On November 13 there’s a day called World Kindness Day. Not a lot of people know about this day, but it’s still a very important day and is overlooked. 

There are things we can do in this world that would make this day more important. Something in Bowling Green we as the community should have an event downtown, like a small concert that we have on weekends. They could have tents set up, sharing kind words and challenges for the next person to do. For example, “Go up to someone you don’t know and tell them something great about their outfit, their hair, or how nice they are.” If the community had events downtown, a lot of people would go, because when something goes on downtown a lot of people find out about it. I’ve been to a downtown event and I didn’t think a lot of people would be there, but little did I know a lot of townspeople came and more showed up later in the day. This would be a great event for people who don’t have anything going on that day, people who live downtown, people who have business downtown, and anyone that’s trying to get their company name out there. World Kindness Day needs to be more of a big deal than just one day because people need to learn the effects of being rude to others.

World Kindness Day was brought about in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement. This is where we celebrate around the world, it gives everyone a chance to do something nice in your community. This happened first in Tokyo 1997 when members came together and held a conference on kindness. There is evidence that being nice to someone increases feelings of wellness, and you can make their whole day go in a different direction just by being nice. 

This day also shows how important it is to show people love, they’re enough, and they will never be alone. I asked my sister, Makayla O’Dell, if she thought a lot of people celebrated World Kindness Day, and her reasoning. She responded, “No, I don’t think a lot of people celebrate World Kindness Day. In my opinion, this is due to society not focusing on more good, people have a tendency to focus on what is going wrong in their life. Every once in a while people have to be reminded of things they are thankful for, that you’re in a good place, that past you wish you would be at. The point is that we as individuals are not kind to ourselves on most days, so this is a correlation on why people don’t celebrate World Kindness day and people aren't familiar with what day it is. We need more kindness in the world... Positivity is a key ingredient in a happy life.” 

Early childhood it’s very important to show your child the ways you should be acting towards someone they may not know. Early childhood is when they start figuring out feelings and the way to act towards people. There are studies that show kindness can be a train effect, for example when one person starts acting nice to someone the other person will continue that kindness to others. 

This day is very important because it reminds everyone to be nice to each other. Life is way too short to be rude, and hateful to each other. This day shouldn’t just be one day you act kind to someone, It should be an everytime thing in all honesty. It shouldn’t even be a day because you need to be thinking about being nice to everyone everyday. No one should be rude and need a day to be reminded to be nice to each other. A lot of people have gone through something hard with bullying or just something hard and then someone coming up to you and being hateful is the last thing someone needs. You never know what’s going on with someone and if you’re just going to be hard on anyone even if you don’t know them and you don’t think about your actions, then you probably need to learn and take this day to be nice to someone. If you already show kindness in every way possible, then this day is to show someone new how much they are loved and appreciated. 

I asked my close friend, Berkley Bryce, how she would show kindness to others, she responded with “I would write notes to people and give compliments, I would give extra hugs to the people who seem like they need it. I would tell people about Jesus and let them know they are loved and cared for no matter what. The Lord will always bring you happiness and peace because he is the one true person that’s capable of doing those things. I would let people know with God he will never do you wrong and if you’re going through a hard time it’s all for a reason.” 

God wants you to be nice to your friends, the people you don’t know, and people you do know. God wants you to be nice to everyone even if it’s harder some days than others, but if you put the time and effort into being nice to someone new everyday you would change their day and even life forever. Ever since the day I was born I’ve seen people judge others and I’ve seen how that makes them feel. If we could all be kinder to each other and show love to everyone and anyone this world would be something you can only imagine.

I asked my Young Life group leader, Olivia Swaney, if more people should know about World Kindness Day. She gave me an amazing answer which I agreed with a lot. 

“Yes! Kindness is one of the best characteristics of being a human in my opinion. Love and kindness. Having a national day of kindness reminds us of one of the easiest ways to love one another - which is to be kind! You never know what someone is going through, one act of kindness goes a long way!” A lot of people love showing kindness through gifts because some people aren’t the best at showing emotionality,  so they buy things for people. 

The freshman counselor, Ms. Baker, said she would give Scooby Snacks to everyone in the school. Ms. Baker shows kindness to everyone every day, and she is a great example of what we should be doing everyday. Sometimes it’s just the little things that matter to others, even writing a letter if you can’t buy a gift, but words of encouragement, kindness, and hopefulness goes a long way.

There’s evidence that shows the effects of being rude and bullying others, connecting bullying and suicide. Kids who are bullied are at risk of suicide and depression, problems outside of school, and being bullied could stay with them forever. Bullying can make children insecure. Being insecure and always having your guard up is hard, and it is an awful feeling not to be comfortable at school or outside of school. 

Being rude and hurting people’s feelings could cause them to have a hard time with life. You never know what's going on in someone's life, and being hateful to them makes everything so much worse. School could be someone's safe space then one day you’re rude to them and they have no place to be free.  

I’ve had a fair share of people being unkind and it’s led me down a path that was painful, hurtful, but needed. I’m not saying this to make it okay for bullying to happen, but if you’re having a hard time with moving forward from being bullied it will get better. That moment in your life is just a moment even though it seems like a forever thing it’s not, I can promise you that there’s so much more to life you haven’t seen yet. You have to have faith that there will be a better day up ahead and it will just get better from there. My personal time with this lasted 2 or 3 months, but I never gave up and in those months I made amazing friends with the same morals as myself and got close with God. Sometimes you have to go through those hard times to find your reasoning and get the ones who aren’t true friends out of your life. My big thing I want you to know is that it's okay and it does get better no matter how many times you’ve heard it. 

World Kindness Day needs be a month and something we can talk about one day at school. If people knew the effects and outcome it has on people who do show kindness and who doesn’t people would be less hurtful. People need to know more about this day and this would be a big step forward in order to make at least the state of Kentucky a better place. The people who are going through this need to know it’s okay and everything will be okay.