/kind/ - Random Acts of Kindness

I was an awkward kid in highschool. Not in a bad way or anything. I had and still have deep and lasting friendships with some of my buddies from back home. But I was awkward socially; I was always to intimidated by everyone else to approach others: both male and female. And for the most part, nobody really talked to me outside of my close friends. I would learn later on that most people were (ironically) as intimidated by me as I was by them. My friends always attributed it to just the way I look and act: they claimed I always had this "don't talk to me please" look on my face and that I was always in a rush to get to the next thing with no time to talk to other people.

But long story short, because of how little I socialized in highschool I was completely inexperienced with talking to strangers when I went to Uni. I ended up practically a hermit in my apartment, with no on-campus friends or acquaintances to speak of, let alone a boyfriend or girlfriend I found out I swung both ways pretty early on.

The only thing that really saved me from myself was an internship I did for a semester. I was basically working in a development lab, but I constantly had to deal with customers, clients, coworkers from the local branch and cross country branches. It forced me to learn how to socialize properly in the adult business environment and by extension how to be social casually.

And it was primarily based on being kind to others. Treating them with respect. Owing them the same courtesies you would expect for yourself. Simple things like smiling when you said "good morning" and complicated things like how to deal with an important client who is a real bully.

I came back to classes this semester and there has never been a time in my life before when I realized that people are always much happier when they have the chance to simply say "hello" when they walk past an acquaintance on the way to class.

Admittedly, I still have no experience dating. That is a frontier that I have yet to breach. Honestly, I have no idea how to even approach that subject with myself. I haven't really met anyone who I'd really enjoy spending almost every waking moment with quite. Or maybe my perception of relationships is just warped. Maybe I'll just fall in love and get swept off my feet before I know it. Maybe I'll unwittingly sweep someone off theirs and we'll live happily ever after. Maybe it'll be tragic, as relationships are wont to be.

But either way I don't think I'm as afraid of that unknown as I used to be. I might even be looking forward to it.

Kindness was always a trait I had as part of my personality for some reason. I was just sort of born with it. But I feel like it's also a product of my weakness.

It's been reinforced throughout my life by various fictional characters I liked a lot, some of which I won't name as the source material of a few of them is something a lot of people strongly dislike even to this day. As time went on though life got worse for me and I learned more unpleasant things about people and the world in general but I can't even talk about those things without some kind of debate starting when I really just want that person to listen and maybe consider things from my perspective.

I see many other people in life and they all look so happy and so many people are so cruel that I see no need to be kind to a lot of people, whatever kindness they would normally get they get from life in general while I and many others don't.

So I've become less sympathetic towards many people but I still try and be nice to those who I think need and deserve it, the less fortunate in life. For example, I would help out a friend of mine start up a store that he always wanted to run. He insisted on paying me but I always turned it down. Another time I delivered sandwiches on my way home from work to two homeless men and I got to learn about their lives. It's also how I got a bandana that one of them wore around his neck as a gift and I wear it often when I go outside, as he requested. People look at me weird because of the way I dress like I have a gun in my coat or there's a bomb strapped to me or I'm generally up to no good which is pretty annoying and I think the bandana has something to do with it but I wear it anyway.

I also sometimes try to talk to people who are having a hard time and see if I can make things a bit better for them.

Since I was a child I wanted to make life better for people and I try and do that when I can. It can be hard at times, it rarely works out to any noticeable result, and I've learned sometimes it's pointless or even counterproductive to do so, but I keep doing it because I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't. But I'm also nice less often because I've grown tired of it somehow. I used to take part in a support group but trying to get people to believe things were okay when they weren't was draining.

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>>36890

>so what's your story?

I met a girl last year.

She was lonely, scared and psychologically abused.

She didn't know any better than to insult me and play with my emotions, since that's all her parents taught her, and we took turns in hurting each other to begin with.

Somehow seeing I could be just as bitter as her made her trust me enough to share her story, maybe as a "I had it worse than you" kind of challenge.

Somewhere along the line I made her a compliment. I don't remember when or how it happened, but she turned really sweet for the rest of the day, like she was an entirely different person.

That's when I understood she hadn't turned into a sociopath just yet and there was still something that could be done to help.

I started a wearing out tactic, where I would keep her on her toes, make her feel awkward or sad, systematically degrade her so I could rip off all of her armor plates she had coater herself in. I even made her cry a couple times.

And when I saw a good opportunity, when she was at her weakest, I showed her all the kindness in my heart all at once.

Something changed since then, and we've been really good friends ever since. We don't hurt each other anymore and we treat each other like we would treat ourselves. She's still a bit distant from time to time because of how little used she is to being kind or experiencing it, but that changes nothing.

Moral of the story.

Some people are hateful, bitter, angry or douchy because they percieve the whole world as hostile.

All it takes sometimes is a complement to breach this "impenetrable" wall of hate.

Just beware of blatant mockery. No amount of compliments will change anything with these people.