Each month, we challenge our community to do something that will improve the world around us—and our own lives. September's challenge? To connect.
Make something for someone.
Earlier this month, I received an email out of the blue from one of my closest friends, who lives 400 miles away. It was time-stamped at about midnight the evening before and instead of her usual cheerful email with links to an awesome event or funny video, it was a long, emotionally-wrenching missive about how her heart had been broken into pieces a few days before.
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I was stunned. We were champion phone and Skype talkers, but didn't email as often. Why had she emailed but not called me? Reading through the sad saga, it became clear that she still was feeling too much to be able to talk about it. I'll be an incoherent mess, she said. I need time, but I'm really hurting.
I emailed right away, and over the next few days sent links and stories that I hoped would cheer her up. We did have a marathon phone conversation the following week, but after hanging up I still felt unsatisfied. Emails and phone calls just weren't the same as being there. I looked around and my eyes fell on an old magazine I'd been saving for her to read. If I can't be there, I thought, at least I can send her a reminder that I want to be. I started assembling a care kit. In went the magazine, along with some chocolate and cookies, a postcard, a book, and I'm working on a mixtape. And even though it's still not the same as being there, it makes me feel better that things that might brighten her day will be close at hand, even when I can't be.
Ready, set, go! Good luck completing today's challenge. Share your experience on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook by using the hashtag #30DaysofGOOD, or let us know how it went in the comments section below.
Tomorrow's challenge: Leave someone a thank-you note.
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