A Random Act of Kindness

What does that mean?! Don't panic. I'm not daring you to gift someone a paint brush (although that would be extremely generous!) or spend trillions of your hard earned neopoints on someone else. I am asking you to do what you can afford to do that someone else can't quite afford yet or to simply lend a hand when the opportunity arises.

Many people already do good deeds every day. There are many avatar lenders out there who help many people achieve their avatar goals. Were you lent something? Pay it forward. There are people who already spend their lives on Neopets helping other Neopians out. Maybe what goes around comes around. Just the other day I helped someone out and today I got help myself from a completely different person. It could be coincidence or it could be magic! Who knows, but it is good to give. So give.

'But I don't know what to give!' you say. Well, some of my ideas of giving include:

• A random item for their gallery
• A random item for their (themed) shop
• Donate non-junk to the money tree and know that someone will grab it
• Buy an expensive item from someone's shop that is new to Neopets, 20K may not seem like a lot to you if you're an experienced player but it's a ton of neopoints to someone just starting out.
• Go to the newbie board and answer questions
• Help with avatar collections if you're able to
• Maybe someone has a sick pet and you're able to afford the medicine. Go buy it for them.
• Help someone with a faerie quest! There is a neoboard for this, after all!
• Have a Habitarium? Give a gift to your friends in there
• Buy a donation item from a shop
• Give advice when asked, knowledge is helpful and free to share
• Compliment someone's pet, petpet, user lookup, gallery, pet page, etc (but do so sincerely!)
• Advertise for someone ELSE'S shop on the neoboards (I don't think I've ever seen anyone do this one!)

Of course, there are many more ways to do good deeds around Neopia. Maybe your good deed could include people you know; do good to one or all of your neofriends. Or perhaps you'd like to help someone you've never met yet. What if your kindness inspires others to keep the kindness going and do good to someone else? What if you start an entire chain of kindness? And if it doesn't? Well, at least you know you were nice to somebody.

Unfortunately you may find people who just might try and take advantage of this niceness. This is why this dared daily should be seen only through action and not through words. Don't post on the message boards that you're out to do good for someone else; instead, humbly find someone that may be in need and just do the good deed without making a big announcement of it. Maybe you come across a person's shop who has listed a pile of dung for 1000 NP in their shop, stating in the description that all purchases of 'pile of dung' are shop donations. Instead of passing that by, you purchase it. That person then checks their shop till and jumps for joy that someone made such a great donation! You might have just made someone's day by doing something that, to you, wasn't much of an effort at all. Maybe you'll end up really liking that particular pile of dung, after all.

It is possible that you may not have a lot of neopoints and really can't afford to give items or buy donation items from shops. However, you are able to take care of your neofriend's Habitariums simply by clicking the 'help out' button by their username. This is located on the bottom of the flash player in which sits your game. I strongly recommend doing this if you're not able to afford anything else. That being said, keep playing Habitarium because eventually you'll have a lot of neopoints and will be able to lend a hand here and there later. Playing other flash games and participating in events around Neopia helps earn neopoints too, but that is for a different article.

"But I don't want to play Habitarium, those petpetpets creep me out!" Well, then there are other things you can do to do good for others. If you're able to answer questions on the neoboards that newbies or anyone else may have, do so. Sharing your knowledge is considered giving too. Another kind (and fun) thing to do is to help out with other peoples' Faerie Quests. This means either helping the player find the right shop where the item is located in or maybe even gifting the item itself (if you can afford to).

Neopia should be a giving, happy, welcoming place! Let's push all the negativity aside and reach for a better tomorrow! Spread the joy, the love, and the giving. This is why I dare you to add this to your dailies list. The more people that do, the more contagious kindness may become. This means less cheaters, schemers, and whiners around Neopia. This means more positive interactions and trust. So whether you live by Kiko Lake, The Haunted Woods, or in Shenkuu, you will know that wherever you are in Neopia you are surrounded by nice and caring people.

So friends, go out there and do GOOD.