Paying It Forward

Heather:

I've Googled many things in my time, but this week found me searching, "why does my gasoline engine sounds like a diesel?"  As you can probably imagine, nothing good comes from a search like that.  All of the posts mentioned oil being the issue, but my oil light hadn't come on and it hadn't been that long since I had the oil changed...

Picture it: I'm in the parking lot of a local big box store attempting to play mechanic when I hear, "Hey, HT! I thought that was you.  Need some help?"  I look up and see one of my students headed toward me.  I could have cried.  He helped me to decipher the lingo on the various bottles and managed to make me feel a little better about the whole situation.  Whoever said that chivalry is dead has not met this guy.

(I feel I should add that Dad made me learn how to check my oil and change a tire before I was allowed to get my permit.  I'm all about being independent, but I also know when I'm in over my head.  One thing I have learned is that when you are in distress, take help when offered.)

My gasoline powered car sounds less like a diesel powered vehicle now and I have a call in to a mechanic to get it checked.

I should have been worried on the ride home.  What if the oil leaked again and I was left stranded on a back road with no cell phone service?  What if the engine seized?  What if, even after checking and double checking, I had added the wrong oil? (That's just how my mind works.)

I wasn't worried, though.
          I was happy.

The student could have kept on going.  I hadn't seen him and even if I had, there was nothing mandating that he help me.  He stopped and offered help with no promise of anything in return.  I offered to pay him, but he refused.  "Just glad I could help," he said.

Instead of forcing him to take money, I decided to pay his kindness forward.  It felt great.  I know the person I helped can't pay me back any more than I can pay back the young man who helped me.  That's not the point.  The point is to help when you can.  You won't always get a glamorous thank you--sometimes there is no thanks at all.  You will, however, feel better knowing that you have helped to make someone's day a little easier.  That's what I've found, anyway.

Assignment: One random act of kindness. Be as creative as you want, but go out and do something for someone else.  Imagine what the world would be like if everyone did one thing every day for someone else...

Lessons in Being Kind

Heather:

The spring is always a hectic time here at my small college nestled in the hills of West Virginia.  The last few weeks have been, for me, a blur of senior projects and campus events.  Our seniors begin taking their Comprehensive Exams on Monday and final exams commence the following week.  Baccalaureate and Commencement will quickly follow and then my students will scatter to the winds for internships, summer jobs, and first jobs. If I were an accountant, this would be my tax season.  I’ve had more cups of coffee today than I had hours of sleep last night and I’m not the only one.  My colleagues and I often compare this time of year to running a marathon at a sprint pace. 

I’m not complaining. 

Really, I’m not.  I love what I do.  I get to watch students make the journey from awkward first-year student to confident graduate.  They recommend music to me and I lend books to them.  They come to me with problems and I recommend solutions.  We laugh together, we sometimes cry together, and when the “plague” is running rampant on campus, we sneeze and cough together.  I consider myself lucky to be doing what I do.  There are times, however, when I don’t feel up to the task.  There are days when I don’t think I have my own life together enough to be able to offer life advice to anyone else.  For example, I’ve missed trash collection for the last three weeks.  Granted, I haven’t been home that much as I have been traveling a great deal to see Gran while she recovers, but three weeks? 

Someone take my adult card.

It’s in moments like this that I need to remember to be nicer to myself. 

This week I am going to start taking better care of myself.  I’m going to go to bed earlier, drink less coffee, and eat more veggies.  I might even take a field trip to a book store to wander up and down the aisles.  I’m going to remember that I can’t make it to every event and I’m not going to beat myself up when I miss one.

I’ll check back in a week and let you know how it’s going.  In the meantime, make good decisions and enjoy at least one sunset.

Sunset in Piedmont.