You are important.

We are launching a "Random Acts of Kindness" campaign with our 8th grade students so I thought that we could get things rolling on National Kindness Day (Friday, November 13)
 by giving each student a sticky note that said 
"You are important." 

As I wrote out the 140 notes to kids, I was thinking about the word important and I wondered what the definition was. When I looked it up, I knew that it was the message I wanted to convey to the kids. 

im·por·tant

imˈpôrtnt/

adjective- 1. of great significance or value; likely to have a profound effect on success, survival, or well-being.

 I love this definition. I truly, truly believe that the kids I interact with are important. They are people of significant value and they have potential to be successful in all they do.

I say all of this to give you some context that I was pretty connected to this little act of kindness. And that's also the problem. Of the 140 notes given out, I picked up 45 off the floor or off of desks because they had been left behind. Of the 95 that kept the notes, one person thanked me. I found myself trying to hold it together as I saw kids crumpling the notes up or when one kid brought a note to me where someone had added "not" to it. 

Ugh. 

To say the least, I felt really defeated and a bit hopeless.  Paper after paper I picked up I asked, why did they did they do this? Why wouldn't they believe this? Why do I take this personally? Rationally I knew that they are 13/14 year old middle schoolers...this is their thing. But despite the rationale of middle schoolers being middle schoolers, all of this got me thinking about how people--of all ages-- don't know how to handle kindness. 

To many, receiving kind words or a compliment of some sort is "not normal" so it causes discomfort and vulnerability. It feels weird and awkward and it causes people to become defensive. For the person giving the kindness it can feel disheartening to see this so tangibly, but I have to believe that 
kindness will still win. 

Despite the crumpled notes and negativity, kindness will win. 
Despite the discomfort and vulnerability, kindness will win. 
Despite it not being a "norm" quite yet, kindness will win. 
It has to.