Snapshot of the last month: non-traditional Thanksgiving festivities with a fellow Midwesterner transplanted to central Mass for the sake of the animals, the beginning of the end aka the end-of-semester crunch, getting a Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving (earliest for me EVER), walking around in leggings and sweaters and deciding that Massachusetts was doing this winter thing wrong, and finally and most importantly for this blog: running out of space for free pictures on this here blog and struggling to cheat the system like I did last time. I finally succeeded, so here's my goodbye post.
Somewhere along the line I decided to end when I finally got to 100. I still have a passion for the cause, just not for the blog. I would get random bursts of inspiration. I would think of something especially witty to say or would have the perfect picture to go with some post. But most of the time I struggled to get posts written. So, I'm going to keep this little project going in my own little sphere of life and hope that I've inspired someone else to try to make a similar difference or any difference at all. But before I go, here is a mixed bag of thoughts:
-Two of the smaller acts of kindness I engaged in lately: giving money to the guy standing outside of the grocery store for the Salvation Army and helping out from 8 am-4pm at the jewelry sale held to raise money for programs offered by my mom's social work office.
-An act of kindness that I experienced: the random guy walking past the jewelry sale table who overheard part of a conversation I was having with this older woman and added his two cents: "She's pretty cute too!" (he was talking about me). Have you told someone else they're cute or funny or just pretty darn wonderful lately?
-This year for Christmas I got most of the presents I gifted from an online community called Jusani Culture. Some other presents were homemade. And then there were the ones gotten locally, from little mom & pop stores that have been on Main Street for as long as anyone can remember. Happy Holidays to one and all!
(Jusani is an online store that brings together all variety of makers of crafty things--
think Etsy with its t-shirts and posters and nick-knacks-- and then donates $5 from each
order to a rotating list of animal shelters. One at a time, small no-kill shelters are given
several month long slots during which they receive all of the donations. Turns out that
October thru December 2012 was especially important to me because all of the money
is going to the Worcester Animal Rescue League, a shelter just a couple towns
over from where I live.)
-Things I will be doing in 2013: following my dreams to Germany for a month-long internship before returning to Massachusetts to finish my Master's degree, reading Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie, perfecting the "21 for 21 Project" so that my 23rd birthday really is a charitable event, and keeping the 365 project going under the radar (aka sans-blog) since technically I still have 260ish to go.
Two final thoughts:
-Click here for smiles and tears:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/moments-that-restored-our-faith-in-humanity-this-y
-Sometimes I wonder if we aren't all just living examples of a Dr. Seuss story. Whether yay or nay, here's some life lessons from dear old Dr. Seuss that I plan to live by for the rest of my life:
