Kindness for me has shaped the entire world as I know it. From the history books, we see how little acts of kindness have averted wars and saved millions of people. A heart of kindness can’t be bought but it can be nurtured from the moment a child starts to relate with others.

I’m extremely lucky. I come from a home where I was taught to share, to hug and most of all give a lending hand. When I was in high school I experienced religious conflict first hand and there were serious casualties on both sides. I saw what real kindness meant. The Christians and the Muslims in some communities protected each other and refused to harm others because of their religious differences. Some provided food, shelter and even risked their own lives to make sure there wasn’t any violence.

From lending a hand to someone you didn’t know, to giving an extra tip to a taxi driver because you had some cash to spare and he had a family to feed, there was always something kind to be done. The world is divided by so many things; race, religion, economic statuses and so on but kindness has the ability to break through and touch all our hearts.

I have been wronged many times, cheated, lied to but I won’t let it affect the decision to remain kind. I feel that my kindness has been taken for weakness many times but that will never stop or deter me from having a kind heart.

I’m a college graduate and most of my friends have left the country because of the situation of things but I ask myself who will fix the situation, show them kindness and let people know that there are others fighting for them to get a better life. This drove me to teach at an IDP camp after Boko Haram devastated the North-Eastern parts of Nigeria and people had to flee to the North- Central, I taught physics and saw the smiles of hope as well as the chance they had at getting a better future. Two of the students I taught have written their Jamb and want to be Doctors. After that, I got myself fully involved as a volunteer with an NGO where we equip people with the skills to tackle life’s challenges. We create awareness on how they can live in peace with their neighbours, show acts of kindness and provide solutions to their problems.

Kindness is what makes you give you neighbour food during the holidays, give your shoes to someone in need and take a stranger in at night when they have nowhere else to go.

Kindness to the environment is planting a tree because I’m thinking of the air that people will breathe after I’m gone from this earth. Picking a plastic container and recycling it properly so that the soil will be good enough to grow food for them to eat. Using products that won’t cause further damage to the ozone layer and in turn, cause global warming.

Kindness to animals is making sure they aren’t maltreated or not taken care of. I believe in loving them because they are in our care and can’t fend for themselves. To stopping certain animals from going extinct and tackling the issues of poachers who illegally kill animals.

Kindness has the power to change any narrative and help fight depression because most of the time we don’t know the ripple effect of what our kindness does to a person.

This is our world and if everyone can just wake up each day to be intentionally kind to one another we will grow at an unprecedented rate, build a world full of love and leave a better place for future generations to live in. I live by the words of our Late Mother Theresa and I quote ‘Three things in life are important; The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind.

I choose to be kind every day!