This week I got to talk with another amazing friend from college, Nick! He shared about how he finds his happiness through three things that together add up to experiences. Music, nature, and travel have a big impact on his happiness and his life. I really enjoyed talking with him and learning how he is able to find happiness through these things, especially during a pandemic. Make sure to listen and maybe you can find something that you relate to as well!
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A couple of weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity of volunteering in person again!! I was able to volunteer on campus and I’m pretty sure I smiled the entire time! I was thinking about how I haven’t been able to volunteer in person for over a year before then.
An organization called Unto came to my campus and our job was to fill bags of rice and beans and then seal them. It allows people to feed their families in places where they otherwise aren’t able to get food. They shared at the end that throughout the entire day, my school would have provided over 40,000 meals! I thought that was so amazing to hear. I worked with one of my best friends, Steph, and I would say we made a pretty good team. We wished we had counted how many bags we filled and sealed but thought about it when it was too late. We think probably around 100! The experience was really fun. My job was to portion out some beans and then pour them into the bag. Steph then sealed the bags and placed them into a box that later moved across the room to be put in a package to be shipped. We even got to wear some hair nets to add to the excitement. Being able to serve again in person made me realize just how much I miss volunteering and it made me excited for the possibilities again when COVID ends (hopefully soon!). These are the things that people think about when they think of volunteering, but it also made me remember that doing things at home and virtually for others is a great way to keep up what brings me so much joy in person. As things open up and we’re able to volunteer in person again slowly, I don’t want to forget all the little acts of service we were able to do during the pandemic. Little things like deep cleaning the house for my mom, writing a letter to a friend, and calling another friend to catch up were all and still are ways to do service. There are so many things we can do to serve those we love. When we serve in bigger ways, I hope we don’t forget to serve those in little ways that we see every day. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about people and their actions. Especially in today’s world if someone makes a mistake or shares an opinion we don’t like. We, as humans, are so quick to judge and say we want nothing to do with them. But the hard reality that people seem to forget (and even me at times) is that people are worth way more than their actions. I’m not necessarily talking about the actions that everyone agrees are very wrong, but instead the posts on Facebook and the small comments that people might regret saying later. The things that we don't all seem to agree on.
Every time someone says to me, “I just unfriended another person on Facebook”, It's hard for me to understand why. Intellectually I know why- I do mute people sometimes when it becomes too much, but unfriending is a different kind of action. Someone that you used to get dinner with or have deep conversations with is no longer your friend because… they use social media too much? And I know, I know it’s different with politics or even human rights. One thing I was thinking about - if we weren’t on social media we probably wouldn’t just stop being their friend because we have one disagreement. I have so many friends (even close ones) that have the complete opposite political view of me. We understand that and go on to love the other aspects of each other and continue to enjoy our friendship because people are worth way more than a single action or opinion. I had an amazing conversation with a friend once where we both had different views but talked it out in a deep conversation (the type of conversation that takes more than five minutes) and we figured out how we both actually could fix the divide and that it wasn’t really that big of a divide at all. It turns into a huge disagreement though if you don’t talk to someone just because they believe something you don’t. It takes effort to sit and listen and put your feelings aside for a few minutes but, to me, it is worth it. I don’t want this post to be a political post – that’s not at all what this is. It could relate to anything, but politics is what seems to be on our minds the most. We don’t have to lose friends because someone is a Republican or a Democrat. Maybe instead of losing that friend, have a conversation (I never said it would be easy) but have that conversation and understand. Maybe you’ll have a similar one that I did. Or maybe you won't and you disagree, that's okay too. We don’t have to agree and we don’t always have to talk about it BUT there is SO much more to a person than their single action and belief and this is especially true if you had a strong friendship before. It’s also important to remember that if we don’t know them well we might not know their story so we shouldn’t be too quick to judge and ignore them completely. I do want to note that it isn’t the same for everyone and sometimes people won’t be understanding and you might have lost friends in this season. If that’s you, I am so sorry to hear that but I am far from judging you. Some things you can’t accept, and I understand it happens, but I wanted to share this to those who need encouragement to remember your friend and to remember that you don’t have to lose a friend just because they share an opposing view to you. We all can come together and rise over this, but the first step is to LOVE and the second step is to ACCEPT. Once we do that, we can truly enjoy our friendships again even if we do disagree on something that is pretty big. |
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August 2022
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