Sweet Inspiration

On Monday, March 28th, at 9:30am, Doug and I stood outside of the East Carolina University Wright Plaza and passed out close to 350 suckers with encouraging and inspiring notes attached to them. Here is a perspective from each of us on this act of crazy love: 


Doug's Perspective
From my perspective, I found this one to be a little daunting at first. It felt a little odd walking up to people at first, because when I see people handing things out outside of Wright Plaza I usually assume that they are promoting some event or trying to get you to join their club; and I would usually avoid them at all cost. I was noticing that I would get that reaction from some people, where they would kind of try to avoid eye contact and speed up to get past me faster. About three people actually said they did not want any. However, those that did accept the suckers and notes did with gratitude. I would say that 98% of the people said thanks and smiled, which made this actually turn into an easier project than I had initially assumed. I noticed after I handed most of the suckers and notes out that the recipients read the notes as they were walking away, and although I could not see their reactions, I like to think that the inspirational notes did make their day somewhat better. 


Meagan's Perspective
I loved this act of kindness! People are so used to seeing strictly promotional things being passed out at Wright Plaza that when someone passes out something to simply encourage, they are taken back by surprise (in a good way, of course!).This was also the perfect day for a project like this, because on such a dreary day, it's nice to have a little encouragement to start off the morning. I also appreciated that people took the time to read the notes; I know that everyone didn't, but a good majority of people did. So many people expressed gratitude for the candy and notes. I loved hearing people discuss the notes; I had one girl ask if they were all different and when I said yes, she was so happy to know that she received encouragement that was just for her. I really enjoyed this act of kindness and this is something I would totally do again! 


Come back next week to read another crazy act of love!

Doing Good via Drive-Thru!

At 1:30pm on Friday afternoon on March 18^th, Doug and I went to Bojangles’ and went through the drive-thru and paid for the meal of the people driving behind us. We decided to do this, because it’s fast and something any person can do while grabbing something at a local fast food place! And we were also hoping it would start a chain reaction of people paying for the meal of the car behind them. One of the best examples, Doug and I found was “The Starbucks’ Pay-It-Forward”. Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out--http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x626051109/Starbucks-customers-pay-it-forward. Here’s our perspective on what we did!

Doug’s Perspective

From my perspective, even though I was not in the driver’s seat, it was a rewarding process. I could not see the person’s face when they got to the window and were told that they did not have to pay anything because we had just paid for it, but I imagine that it would have been an expression of gratitude. The Bojangles’ employee at the drive-thru window looked to be a little confused at first because he thought that we were with the person behind us. However, when we told him that we were not together, his expression changed to a joyful one. I don’t think that there would be much of a different experience across genders for this one because in a way you have a sense of anonymity when paying. So, overall, by hoping that I may have made someone’s day a little better, it made mine much better too.

Meagan’s Perspective

I thought this act of kindness was so much fun! It is so rewarding to know that this wasn’t about us but rather an inspiration to the car behind us that someone did something nice for them and perhaps spur them on to do something for the car behind them. The Bojangles’ employee’s expression was also rewarding, because he was happy to see someone being kind to people that they didn’t know personally or even at all. From my perspective, this is an act of kindness that could be turned into a once-a-month option, because fast food places are so affordable and helping out someone so frequently might start a chain reaction on a regular basis! And to me, that’s so rewarding and exciting!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

Check back next week to find out a new way to show the crazy love you can give to someone else!

Opening Doors: Girls > Boys

On Monday afternoon, March 14th, Doug and I went to Wright Plaza on the East Carolina University campus and opened doors for people entering and exiting the Dowdy Student Store. Here is a perspective from each of us: 

Doug's Perspective

From my perspective, I found that most of the people who I opened doors for were a little bit unsure of why I was opening the door for them. I feel like most of them were more intimidated than thankful of me opening their door. Although they all said thank you, most of them failed to make eye contact with me when they spoke, or even lift their heads. In my opinion, having me open the door instead of Meagan was less productive because it seemed to me that most of the people were way more comfortable having a female open their door rather than a male. 

Meagan's Perspective

I would definitely say that I had a far easier time opening doors and getting a friendly smile and "Thank you!" rather than Doug. I think my being a female and being smaller than Doug made me appear more approachable. In fact, the first person who Doug opened the door for thanked me instead of thanking Doug. I felt like people saw my opening the door as a way of being polite and friendly, whereas they might have seen Doug's attempt at opening the door a poor attempt at starting conversations with females. 

Check back in next week to read about more sane ways to show crazy love!