Be nice to a stranger month wrap up

31 days of being nice, I'll be honest, there were a few points when I didn't think I was going to make it.
It was never being nice that was the problem, it was coming up with creative and cheap things to do for 31 days.
Do you want to hear the stats?

29 different acts were completed. Being nice to a neighbor was repeated twice, as was buying something for a cashier.

Total cost $57.50 including donating to charity (NOT including buying a gift card for a family in need) $82.50 If you include that.

Total number of days that it cost me something out of pocket? 14 days
Average cost $4.

Total number of days it was FREE to be nice to someone? 17 days (You would think I could have just subtracted to figure that out, but instead I counted. A part of me is very ashamed of that)

Total amount of time spent doing the nice acts: 3 hours, 12 minutes and 30 second. Or 192.5 minutes
Total amount of time in the month of December: 44640 minutes.
Total percent of time in the month of December being nice to people .04%

The total number of people I called/ asked for help to figure out the math on that one: 6
3 math teachers
1 writer
1 Scientist
1 husband

Total number of people this blog impacted that I know of: 227. I told about 150 people about Puppy Sized elephants (all my students and several other people)

I state "that I know of" because the thing about blogging is, you NEVER know who's reading it. I had a grand total of 72 comments over 31 days, I had 22 separate people comment on the blog. Clover and Whofan were the two who commented the most, making up for 20 of the entries. I was the biggest commenter with 12 postings. Comments are the only way a blogger knows you've read it. Comments and followers are the lifeblood for bloggers. Please keep that in mind. There could be lots of other people out there I've made an impact on, but I don't know. Comments make my day just as much as the deeds might have made yours.


Favorite acts of kindness:
Buying coffee- because someone BOWED to me
Buying Medicine- What a HUGE impact that one had on some many different people.
Puppy Sized Elephants- there was an instant smile from every person I told it to.


What I learned:
Being nice is easy, blogging is hard.

I didn't need to be nice to everyone (my students can testify to that one ;-) ) but all I needed to be nice for 30 seconds a day. When I looked at it like, it took a lot of the pressure off.

I am extremely lucky. This experience has made see how blessed I am, to have amazing and excellent friends who are super supportive. Also I am extremely lucky to have the good life I do. People are struggling out there and it isn't just something that's happening far away in some distant country most people can't pinpoint on a map. No, there are people struggling a half a mile from my house. The homeless man and the gentleman who couldn't pay for his meds, both of these event occurred at the strip mall near my house.

I changed my thinking every time I left my house. I was constantly on the lookout for something nice to do. I was little bit more aware of people around me. They stopping being 'things that were in my way' and became people, humans, with all the feelings and emotions I have.

Every action I did, I stopped and thought, "was the good enough to blog about?" Often times, I said "No. This is just me being the person I am, or this is what a civialized human being SHOULD be doing."

Yes, some of the examples were slightly larger then life, and meant going of my way, but most of them weren't.

.04% of the entire MONTH was spent being nice to people and look at the impact it made.

So will I do this again?
Yes.

I will keep the blog up. I'm not going to update it every day. No, but whenever I go out of my way to be nice, I'll update it.

Better yet.

It's new years, it's time to make those resolutions. Maybe you pick being nice to someone once a week as your new year's resolution. If you write it up (That's the part that takes the most time) and e-mail it to me, I'll post it here.

email- benicetoastranger@gmail.com

If you liked my writing, and you want to check out more, you can follow my other blog. It might not be as uplifting but I think it's funnier.

Thank you so much for sticking with me on this one. Thank you thank you thank you thank you.