People often pass people in need without a second glance or thought. A few weekends ago, me and my friends stood out on a median of a road and collected donations for the homeless. Throughout this event I saw many people take time out of their day at their own inconvenience to give some money. Most of the people avoided us and would purposely swerve out of our lane and annoyed at us for what we were doing. The people who gave were very kind and supportive. There was one that stands out in my mind: even though the light was green and there were people behind them, the person stopped and gave money. 

     This one act was very impactful because this person knew that they were going to get to their destination later and that the people behind them could be very annoyed. This is just one of the many acts of kindness I witnessed that day. The people who took the extra second out of their day to donate even if it inconveniences the people behind them. 

We often had long stretches of time in which we would just be passed by and ignored. This decreased my motivation a little each time, but every time someone would stop and donate it always gave me the energy to keep going and keep collecting. Just to see those people care enough to donate felt really good and to know that because of them someone’s life would change for the better. For the past few weeks all I have had to do was to think about the impact that those people would have on someone's life to lift myself up and know that I also made a difference in this world. 

Every time I think about this it always brings back those feelings of gratitude and happiness I felt as I was collecting donations. While doing this, it dawned on me that the smallest act can change someone's life and give them hope. I had heard this said to me by several people but I never understood it as well as I did then. The small and seemingly simple acts of kindness I saw that day were tremendous and had a huge impact on our city and helped many people who were struggling and needed the help. These acts impacted me too and helped to show me that a lot of people care and support the people who need it most. The only reason we think otherwise is because we only ever hear about the bad in the world even though the world is filled with good people. This experience was really eye opening for me to the impact small acts of kindness can have on someone.