My thoughts are being vigorously typed onto my Notes page, fingers flying across a screen that’s much too small for the extensive writing I’ve suddenly been inspired to do. My “emotional” playlist is playing through my ears drowning out the world around me. Something about this playlist, my sheer exhaustion, and the darkness surrounding me as I drive down the highway has put me in a heartfelt mood. A mood that hits me ever so often with such intensity that the emotions that crash over me make the thoughts flying through my brain almost impossible to comprehend let alone write down. Yet it’s always my best content. The thoughts that mean the most to me. Tonight I got lucky and here I am writing things down. This time my thoughts were drawn to a new friend, someone I’ve come to admire with my whole heart. This girl is the type of person you meet for the first time and automatically wish you had known your entire life. Genuine is too small a term to encompass the depth of honesty and kindness found within her. I can’t even say I know her well yet I know deep within me how wonderful of a human being she is.

She talks to every person she encounters with so much compassion. You could easily pour out your whole soul to her before you even knew what you were doing and she wouldn’t even mind. She’d wrap you in a massive hug before calmly telling you exactly where you’re right and exactly where you’re wrong. And you’ll know she’s right. Any encounter with this girl is a blessing. You’ll walk away feeling better than you did before entering her presence. Not only do I value how genuine she is but how quickly she can jump from a fun and playful mood to complete seriousness when the need arises. That takes an incredible amount of maturity that is hard to come by. As I mentioned before, I’m not even incredibly close with this girl, but even from a distance, I’ve witnessed her brilliance and true heart. My pure shock and amazement are what have led me to write this all down in the first place. I’m acknowledging what I’ve found. Now I’m not trying to keep her to myself, there’s no way she’d let me anyway. This girl is a free spirit. I’m purely pointing out an incredible anomaly I’ve found in the hopes that you remember to be on the lookout for incredible people like her. Next time I see her in person I’ve told myself I’m going to tell her how much I value her. Straight to her face. I think she deserves my appreciation. I don’t owe it to her due to any specific encounter but that’s not what this is about anyway. I urge you to also verbally acknowledge the amazing people surrounding you. They could be your closest friend, your mom, or the grocery store cashier that gives you a bright smile every time you come through their line. Everyone deserves a little random act of appreciation. Too many selfless acts go without acknowledgment and we have the ability to change that. Please don’t think I’m urging you to write an incredibly long and dramatic blog post about how awesome the people you know are. That would be totally overkill (haha oh the irony). I mean if that’s the best way for you to call out awesome people then, by all means, please type away. Send me the link. I’ll like, subscribe, repost, the works. But obviously, there are other ways to go about this. A simple word of thanks or a compliment of someone’s personality or actions is all you need. It goes a long way. So let’s try to make this more of a norm. By doing so we’ll improve not only other people’s quality of life but our own as well. I don’t see any downsides. Do you?

Songs that played while I wrote this because I know you’re so incredibly intrigued about my “all the emotions” playlist on Apple Music (not an ad but you should still check it out):

• Just a Little Bit of Your Heart - Ariana Grande
• Too Good at Goodbyes - Sam Smith
• Fix You - Coldplay
• Big Girls Cry - Sia
• Already Gone - Kelly Clarkson
• If This is Love - Ruth B.
• Kmttp - 1$T
• Coloring - Kevin Garrett
• Bad Dreams (Piano Version) - Faouzia
• Machine - Amber Run
• Jesus Wept - Sia
• All I Could Do Was Cry - Beyonce
• changes - XXXTENTACION
• The Letter - Kehlani
• Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore) - B.o.B

I'm sure there were more but I'm embarrassed by how long my writing process truly is so that's all you get. Thanks for reading and don't forget to appreciate someone amazing today.

yours truly, kaeleigh