Hello Internet!
As always, I hope you had a wonderful week! For me it was a bit of a mixed bag, but also full of excitement. Lots of good and lots of bad mixed up in a pretty busy week. Anyway here on the website we had another successful week. No records broken or milestones achieved, but a solid week nonetheless. Last Sunday I published a Weekly Blog all about The Netflix Anime Series, Children of the Whales. If you haven’t seen it, I’ll warn you it’s full of spoilers, but the first half talks about it in broad details if you are wanting to get a sneak peak before viewing. Or maybe you have seen it and want to read what I thought about it. Either way, check it out if you haven’t already. On Wednesday I published a Poem all about The Wonderful Spring Weather. Of course when it was written, it was a nice warm, Spring day. Then we had a week of cold rain and snow, so maybe it was a bit premature. On Friday I released the second part to last week’s Writing Prompt. This is a continuation of the Dungeons and Dragons inspired Writing Prompt pieces. If you love D&D or Fantasy worlds full of Dwarves, Elves, and Dragons, check out those pieces. Anyway, Journey Through The Ollick Forest Part 1 is here and Journey Through The Ollick Forest Part 2 is here. Those are the most recent pieces from this series and it focuses on Juniper, The Elven Ranger and Piakol, her pet dragon. We’re so close to getting the whole party together! On Saturday, I published a re-edit/revision of a Writing Prompt piece I wrote over a year ago. I thought it was a really awesome prompt and I wanted to revisit it. So go ahead and read it if you haven’t already and let me know whether or not I should go back and revisit some old pieces. Also if there are any pieces in particular you think deserve a new coat of paint or a piece that you think deserves a sequel, let me know that as well. If a piece has enough support behind it, I’ll bring it back with my ever-improving writing skills. Sorry that was super long, but now we can jump into this week’s Weekly Blog.
I’ve noticed that my Weekly Blogs can vary greatly from week to week. For example the past Weekly Blogs have been about Anime, Job Searching, Holidays, Sports, Taxes and Education, and Movies. These topics vary so much because they depend on what is going on at the time both out in the world and in my own personal life. When I’m enjoying a rainy day, I write about rain. When I just finished a new Anime I enjoyed, I write about that. When I have no idea what to write, I panic and wait until Saturday night hoping that something interesting happens to me and then I end up writing about 80’s nostalgia. Actually I thought that one was pretty good, but that doesn’t mean it was my plan all along. Anyway I wanted to use this week’s Weekly Blog to tell everyone to be nice. It seems like a simple message. Be nice. But some people have a hard time with it. And I’m not here to pass blame and yell at people for being mean. That’s not the purpose of the blog. I just want to remind people that it doesn’t cost you a single thing to be nice.
In the world and on the internet, it seems like some people find it very easy to be mean or negative. Some people just have a bad day and take it out on the people around them. Some people are trolls who get amusement out of ruining other people’s day. Some are just passionate people who don’t realize that their excitement sometimes isolates the people around them. Whatever the situation is, I think it’s important to keep in mind to take a deep breath and ask yourself how your actions affect everyone else. This is not to say that I’m perfect, because I am not. I understand that when you are in the moment and emotions are high, it’s hard to think about all the consequences. I just ask everyone, myself included, be a little bit more sensitive to everyone. You don’t have to sugar-coat stuff or censor yourself. Just be aware that your actions and the things you say affect the people around you. Especially on the internet. No matter if your audience is five people or 5 million people. The words you put out there can have a positive influence on others. I never fully know how many people read the stuff I like and feel connected to me and the community I’m trying to grow here. Maybe it’s just one person or maybe it’s the 150+ followers I have currently. Either way I hope that everyone who reads the stuff I write leave my website feeling a little better. Even if my pieces are sad or emotional, I still want people to be able to process those emotions in a positive space.
This reminds me of the movie Pay It Forward with Haley Joel Osment. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. It has Kevin Spacy in it which is kind of a sore spot now, but that aside it’s a really good movie. Also I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s one of those movies that make me cry. That’s all I say. Anyway, the main message of the movie is to pay it forward which means that you help people who help other people who help other people. Haley Joel Osment’s character, Trevor, comes up with an idea to help out three people in his life. This will lead to each individual person helping out three other people. It will then grow from 9 to 27 to 81 to 243 and so on and so forth. Eventually it will have rippling affects around the world in a domino affect caused by one little boy helping three people. It’s a smart idea, but doesn’t work out exactly as planned for him. (Watch this movie for more.) That idea kind of inspires me to help at least one person because you never know who is out there and who will be helped by you. If you help one person and they help the next person, you can start a chain of niceness and helpfulness. It all starts with you. It’s kind of the butterfly affect in action. One small action leading to bigger and bigger actions. Your one small act of kindness can have dramatic affects on the world around you and you never know which actions will have the most affect, so be nice all the time to make sure you never miss that opportunity. Again I’m not perfect and neither are you. That’s ok. But if you make a conscience effort to help others and be a positive force, you can actually make a difference. So just be a little bit more conscience of the people around you and what you are putting out into the world.
One last thing I’ll say about this is that you never know what people are going through. You only have your very limited perception of the world and it’s impossible to know what everyone else is feeling or thinking in that moment. Some people are very good at masking their true emotions or true intentions while others wear their thoughts and feelings on their sleeves. Some people suffer from depression, but act like the happiest person in the world with a huge smile on their face. Some people who seem extroverted actually suffer from social anxiety. Some people who seem like a neat freak might actually suffer from OCD. Again you never know what people are going through. So be nice to as many people as you can. One single smile or small moment of kindness might be the thing that saves someone from plummeting over the edge. I hear stories all the time about people who are suicidal and are mere days away from ending their lives, but change their mind after someone notices them and takes an interest in their lives. Maybe they just need a friend. Someone who cares about them and wants to help them out. Maybe you can be the person who reaches out and ends up saving someone’s life. I don’t want to put any pressure on anyone, but that just reinforces the point that you don’t know what people are going through and that you can make a difference. So next time you have the opportunity to make the world better, take the chance. If everyone did that we could make this world a better place.
I know the subject matter was a little heavier than most weeks. I just want to add a last thing here. If you are suicidal or have feelings of depression, I ask you that you reach out to someone who can help you. I’d love to say that I can help you with whatever issues, but I am not a professional. I don’t have any training in how I can help you. Please. Please. PLEASE call The National Suicide Prevention Line. The number is:
1-800-273-8255
They are available 24/7 so you can call them no matter what time it is.
Thank you for reading this Weekly Blog. If you liked it, feel free to give it a like or leave a comment down below. Let me know about a time you had a positive impact on someone or when a stranger that a positive impact on you. Let’s spread some positivity down in the comments as well as the rest of the website. If you really liked this Weekly Blog feel free to check out the rest of the website. There are over 200 different published pieces so I’m sure you can find something you would enjoy reading. Again thank you for all the support. It really means a lot to me.
I hope you have a wonderful week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to The Odyssey Online’s article about “Why You NEED To Be Nice.”
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-you-need-to-be-nice
Allen The Writer 