HOORAY! IT’S OFFICIALLY 100 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!

A few weeks ago, I was at work, waitressing by myself on a typical Sunday evening. Just before I was about to clock out, I found myself in a deep conversation with this one young woman. She was the only one left in the restaurant and the very last last table of the night. I don’t remember how we got on the topic, but she proceeded to tell me details about her rough past and how she has never let her bad experiences affect her outlook on life. Growing up, she remembered bringing her leftover boxes of food to the homeless across from her house, rescuing animals wandering the streets, volunteering at soup kitchens multiple times a week, and so much more. She moved and inspired me beyond words.

I went home that night and wondered, can one person really make a difference? Why exactly haven’t I taken the time to give back? What can I do to make up years of selfishness and materialism? I am 20-something years old, and most of kids my age are caught up in three things and three things only: money, schoolwork, and social lives. Consider changing your daily motives this holiday season. You are only one person, that’s true, but it only takes one person to inspire others, just like I was.

A movement specifically designed for college kids, each of these acts are completely affordable and realistic. Affordable in the sense that the budget can be kept under $100 for the entire season, and realistic because we’re all busy students with homework and commitments, so 100 days for 50 acts should certainly be doable for most. ‘The Big Things’ are considered more time consuming, so perhaps should be completed on a weekend, while ‘The Little Things’ don’t take much effort at all. Between now and Christmas Day, take the challenge and complete as many of these acts as you can!

THE BIG THINGS:

1. Participate in Operation Christmas Child
2. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
3. Hand out blankets/hot chocolate to the homeless
4. Ring the Salvation Army bell
5. Get a group together to adopt a family for Christmas
6. Take baked goods to the homeless
7. Donate old clothes
8. Volunteer at a hospital
9. Actually try to rescue a stray
10. Find/write to a pen pal
11. Volunteer at a nursing home
12. Cook dinner for your friends
13. Walk dogs at an animal shelter
14. Donate blood
15. Bake cookies for your neighbors

THE LITTLE THINGS:

1. Hold every door open, all day
2. Rake your neighbor’s leaves
3. Send someone an e-card on a gloomy Monday morning
4. Give a Gatorade or soda to the mailman/mechanic
5. Pay for the person behind you in line
6. Sing a teammate’s/coworker’s praises to your boss
7. Surprise someone
8. Help out a drunk person
9. Send someone a card in the mail
10. Talk to a stranger
11. Make someone’s day
12. Help someone who needs it
13. Do the dishes even if it’s not your turn
14. Listen to and learn someone’s story
15. Leave a generous tip
16. Surprise someone with something on a bad day
17. Visit your grandparents
18. Give a compliment about a server to their manager
19. Bake for a nursing home
20. Make a CD and give to a friend
21. Anonymously send flowers/cookies
22. Shovel someone’s snow
23. E-mail and thank a past teacher
24. Let someone cut in front of you
25. Talk to the shy person at a party
26. Send a dessert to another table at a restaurant
27. Talk to a homeless person
28. Send your grandma a hand-written letter
29. Be the DD
30. Compliment someone in front of others
31. Say ‘thank you’ to a janitor
32. Text someone you haven’t seen in awhile and wish them a good day
33. Drop some treats off at an animal shelter
34. Sit by someone new
35. Smile when you feel like scowling

Let's change the way millennials do things. Try giving instead of just receiving this year. The reward is so much more than you could ever imagine!