Dear Friends,
I hope to share with you my story, in hope that it can encourage you a little, in whatever interest or dreams that you are pursuing at the moment. If you don't give up and keep trying, you may just find success one day. If you have a rough start, it does not mean that your ideas are not good, it probably mean that you need to fine tune abit to make everything gel.
When I started Project Act of Random Kindness (P.A.R.K.) in Sep 2013, I was full of enthusiasm and energy. I can't wait to share with the whole world the joy and benefits of giving kindness, how it can change our world for the better through acts of random kindness, one at a time. I started blogging and giving kindness whenever and wherever I can. I make it a point that it should be my lifelong journey to give kindness and I also hope that I can influence some friends to join me in this journey. It is my vision to build a community of kind people, where we can come together to give kindness and love, to help those in need and move everyone forward together.
After weeks of blogging, I come to realize the only person who is seriously reading my blog is myself! Everyday I wish someone would leave a comment on my blog posts, even if it was a negative comment but there was none. I later figured that why don't I create a Facebook page instead? If there are friends liking my page, it would be an acknowledgement that I am engaging people and moving in the right directions. So, I set up P.A.R.K. Facebook Page and while I try to promote this page when answering questions on Yahoo Answers, there was no "likes" after weeks of waiting, haha smile emoticon The person who was reading all the kindness quotes and stories shared on the FB page was again none other than myself. It was starting to get a little demoralizing because after weeks/ months of spreading the message, there was totally no response.
I then decided that I should be more proactive, so I went to shamelessly add friends whom I have not met in real life. These friends have demonstrated the will to give kindness in some ways (through supporting kindness initiatives posted on FB) and since I want to be the messenger, let me try to engage them first. I started sharing my thoughts and reflection on my wall and the response was better, much better than when I try to communicate via my blog or page. Thereafter, I seized the opportunity to get them to like my FB page *evil grin*
To enhance further interaction and engagement, I set up our Facebook Group, P2P, to serve as a platform to share kindness oppprtunities with anyone who is willing to give kindness. I know we all lead busy lifestyles so it might not be feasible for most of us to commit to regular volunteering. The ad hoc volunteer events and request of preloved items should serve us fine. I also hope that through P2P, the volunteer leaders can get the support (manpower, sponsorship) that they need, after putting in so much effort to organize an event/ initiative. I also hope that the interaction we have in our group can inspire more people to join in the kindness journey and experience the true joy of giving.
Till date, we are edging towards 3,000 members, many of whom join us willingly (lest the first few hundreds whom I again shamelessly add without their permission :p). Having said that, it is not the number of members that I am proud of but the amazing volume of kindness shown by many of you that greatly touches me. It is your tremendous support that help many volunteer groups achieve their goals of helping more needy folks, when it all seems gloomy initially. I always feel that P2P is just a gathering place, there's nothing great about group name (or it's founder) but true greatness comes from the people, it is members like yourself who makes our group such a special and heartwarming place to be in, thank you very much for that.
The point I am trying to bring across in this long post is that if you have something that you strongly believe in, you have got to keep trying to make it work. Don't give up when you meet up with setbacks or they will be your stumbling blocks. Instead, make them your stepping stones to geer towards something bigger and better. I wish you all the best in whatever you are striving at; live for the moments that take your breadth away, chase your dreams and live life to the fullest, for it is too short to go through motion. Cheers smile emoticon
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