Kindness Starts With One®

One smile. One hug. One cup of coffee. One person...

Do you have someone in your life who inspired you to be a better person? Did you witness an act of kindness that left an impression? Share your kindness story with the world.

Tell Us Your Kindness Story
Making my Grandfather Happy

My grandparents were coming over to my house to have dinner. This was a sort of family get together, with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. Now my grandparents had given me their car about a year ago and I was so thankful; I swore to them that I’d take care of it. Well, let’s just say I’m not that good at keeping promises, because the car was a mess. There was bird poop on it and stuff cluttered in the back and in the trunk. I decided that as much as I loved all the stuff back there, and as busy as I was at the time with just getting finished with touring colleges and working day and night on my Eagle Project proposal, I knew I needed to do something. I had to make the car look presentable to my grandparents, ESPECIALLY my grandfather, who had treated the car like his own child. If he looked in the window to the back of the car, he wouldn’t say anything, but he would definitely feel disappointed. I dropped everything and went outside and commenced my cleanup. It took about a half an hour. There was so much junk in the back, like drumsticks, plastic cups, and candy.  I got to the trunk where my brother and I keep our stash of junk food. There was so much other stuff back there I didn’t even know I had, including a button-down shirt, my missing hat, my certificate for confirmation into my church, empty soda cans, and a two-week-old sandwich. I dumped it all on the pavement and looked back in my car, asking myself why I hadn’t done this before. I also grabbed a wet rag and wiped off all the bird poop. The car wasn’t shining like new, but it did look a lot better than before. Then I remembered something my mom told me about how my grandfather would never let the gas tank go down to ‘E’ and would always fill the car right up whenever he had used ¾ of the gas. Apparently it’s better for the car, or at least it is in his mind. While I knew he’d never really see this, I knew it would make him happy if he’d known that I had filled up the tank, as my car was almost at ¾ of the way to empty. So I told my mom I was going out to get gas and filled my car up. I was pleased with the work I had done and went back inside to work more on my Eagle Project proposal. My grandparents later showed up at the house. While we were all eating dinner, my grandfather grinned at me and said, “The car’s looking good,” which was something he’d never really said to me before. I’m now committing myself to cleaning out my car every month. It means taking about an hour out of my week to help keep one of the things my grandfather cherishes most in the best shape it can be. I’m also saving up money now for a car wash because, while I could care less about how my car looks, I want to make my grandfather happy again the next time he sees my car.

0 Comments

Please log in or sign up to add your commment.