Well this summer was quite the summer for me indeed. To sum it all up, I went on a big trip to Kansas, USA (lasted 25 days) in which I done so much to help the community, which I’ll get onto later. I also spent about 10 days in Canada and got my GCSE results back (I passed with flying colours! 8 A’s and 2 B’s). I also watched the new superman movie which I would 100% recommend. One thing this summer taught me is that this world needs a lot more kindness, and I mean a LOT more.

Time back to July first, I went to Kansas as a teenager, and I came back home as a young adult. In Kansas, I done everything, from supervising and entertaining children at a semi-daycare to horse riding with foster kids, I really did so much to help the community. Talking to people with mental and physical disabilities etc. has really enlightened me on how many nice people there are in this world.

Let’s start with one of the first ever activities I did, painting clay Christmas trees. I went to this place called clay works, where various people with both physical and mental disabilities come to do art pieces and so on. There, I met this sweet old man named Jason. Now Jason woke up one day and was completely paralysed from the waist down, yet somehow went through his day to day life and loved sports just as much as he did before, and he’d tell me all about it. Jason made me realise how people with these disabilities still get up everyday and get on with it. Jason was a very kind man who would ask me all sorts of questions and tell me about the most recent football game, and most important of all, he was kind to me, not just because I’m Irish or because it was a special occasion, but because he was a nice human being, and that’s how we should all strive to be.

Another activity I got up to was a few hours volunteering at reins of hope. Reins of hope is pretty much where people who suffer disabilities and foster children go to ride horses pretty much, while doing fine motor skill games etc (like bringing a certain coloured cup to the matching corner of the barn or whatever it’s called while on the horse). At reins of hope, I got to talk with many people, and one person who stood out to me was a girl about my age in foster care. Same as Jason, she was nice to me and showed kindness, and despite what she may have been through before, she still shone and was happy and very talkative!

Next, we went to a place called the boys and girls club, which was a sort of daycare for primary (elementary) school aged children who come from families which aren’t as well off. (Some) of these children were so kind to us and were willing to listen and co operate with us, and most of them loved us and enjoyed their time, and it also made me feel like a kid again, which kinda lit something inside of me.

Coming home from this trip of mine, I realised something: kindness is free, and it makes people’s day a lot better, and people think much more highly of you. Kindness will always be there to give out, and it always repays. I came home a better person and I’m so grateful for the opportunity I had.

Another thing this summer that changed my view on kindness was the new superman movie. I don’t wanna turn this into a movie review, but it was genuinely so good to see a happy and fun superman movie rather than the dark and gritty movies we were receiving recently. One key thing stuck with me in that movie: kindness is the new punk rock. We should all be kind and forgiving, like superman was. Superman is a symbol of hope, not of fear. Superman should make people think “wow, I wanna be just like him.” I loved this movie so much and the song “punk rocker” which played at the end genuinely made me smile, and now every time I listen to that song, a smile appears on my face yet again, and it reminds me to be kind and respectful of everyone. We all bleed red.

To conclude this, I don’t have much to say except that you, the reader, should strive to be unconditionally kind. Yes, even if someone is giving you a hard time, you should still try to be kind, because being harsh back to them will only make you just like them. Thank you for reading my blog, have a nice day!