This post is inspired by Shot@Life, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation dedicated to using vaccines as a cost-effective way to save children’s lives in developing countries. (Image courtesy United Nations Foundation.)
Hi team, I need help. Here’s why:
For every comment on this post, Shot@Life gets $20 to vaccinate a kid.
Twenty. Dollars.
Twenty dollars is what it costs to give one child four vaccines that help protect them against measles, pneumonia, diarrhea, and polio. During Shot@Life’s Blogust: Blog Relay for Good, 31 bloggers have been helping to secure $200,000 in sponsor donations. We need 10,000 comments, and we’re about 1,000 away from that goal right now.
Over the years, your comments have shaped my life. Whether you were celebrating Hank’s birth with me, or cheering my Life List, or comforting me when things took a difficult turn. I know you guys care about helping other people because of how much help you’ve already heaped on me.
So let’s do this.
Can you comment twice? Yes. Yes you can. And if you have a means of spreading the word, please Tweet, Pin, link on Facebook, or post a quick link on your own site.
Let us know the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you in comments. And thanks to you for being so nice to other people. I like you.
Yesterday Fadra Nally of All Things Fadra wrote about the comments you never see. Tomorrow, I’m passing the baton to my friend Stacey Ferguson of Justice Fergie — so you can help us reach our final goal by commenting on her site as well. We have until August 31. Thanks again.
Mighty Girl 
The nicest thing anyone ever did for me was loving me and supporting me for who I am, even when others around us did not. I needed to know it so much because my whole life felt like it was falling apart. Thankfully now I’m in a much better place, and I can do for other people what my friends did for me.
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Trying to think of the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me is reminding me how many awesome people I have in my life. Thank you! One thing that stands out is when my then boyfriend now husband made me chocolate chip pancakes and asked me if I’d like to go to San Francisco for my 38th birthday. I remember being really shocked by the suggestion that we actually go on a trip to celebrate my birthday. I’d spent the previous 10 years being married to someone who didn’t really celebrate anything.
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my husband has always vacuumed and dusted our house because he doesn’t want me to get a sniffly nose.
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I was returning from a three-week trip in South Africa in January of 1998. I asked a coworker friend of mine (with whom I had had one date, a few days before I left) to pick me up at the airport. When he found me, he had been wearing my coat so it would be warm when I put it on, and when he dropped me at my apartment, he pulled out a half-gallon on milk and a package of mini boxes of cereal with the comment that he knew it was late and my fridge would be empty, so at least when I woke up I would have something to eat for breakfast. He got the variety of mini boxes because he didn’t know what I would like. Truly a thoughtful way to pick someone up at the airport. We’ve been married for 13 years next month. 🙂
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Thank you for bringing this to attention!
The nicest thing anyone has done happened a few years ago when my students saw that I had been crying and they asked if I saw ok and if they could do anything for me. I teach high school and I think teenagers are given a bad reputation for being kind. At any rate, their kindness really helped me.
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The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me is something that my husband often does: re-frame my critical self-talk by reminding me that I’m a human being and of course I’m going to make mistakes or be a bitch sometimes and that’s OK, I’m still lovable. That melts the shame and helps me forgive myself.
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I can’t think of the single nicest thing, but my last year of college things in my personal life started to fall apart — multiple family members in hospital and/or with failing health, a friend extremely ill, generally overwhelming life. I wasn’t the most communicative of unhappy people (my MO is to shut everything inside and not talk about it), but my friends were incredibly patient and supportive, even when they weren’t sure what was going on. I was grateful then and I am grateful now.
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The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me? I think I would have to say my husband for letting me pursue my dream. His believing in me was a true gift!
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This is amazing.
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Very cool, Maggie. Once a stranger pushed me up a very steel and icy hill when I was in a wheelchair with a broken ankle.
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The nicest thing that is happening to me right now is that I am absolutely overcommitted and in way over my head on volunteer projects – and two of my friends are really listening to me everyday to get me through the difficulties and my FB peeps are posting nice comments that make me get back at it. Also – I’ve been married for almost 26 years – and the nicest thing my husband does is he gets me coffee every morning- he may really never understand how much that means to me.
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The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me was to accept me. I grew up in a broken and oftentimes emotionally abusive home, always tiptoeing around who I was in order to keep the peace, saying I’m sorry when there was no fault, and certainly not from me. When I married, my new husband knew this, and on our honeymoon he made a point to break me of the “I’m sorry” habit. Six years later, I still feel like I have been set free.
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I love the Blogust initiative. Thanks for participating!
My friends who know finance are being super nice to me today. I made a really stupid mistake with my bank and now will have to spend a couple of days sorting it out and they’re being very free with their support and advice. One even basically wrote me a script of what to say in my phone calls so I’ll get the best possible service.
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My family gave me money to buy a bike when I only had the money to buy food and pay my rent. I burst into tears because I was so happy.
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The nicest thing someone did for me was to throw a surprise themed birthday party.
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The nicest thing? Hard to say. The person who comes to mind first is my internship supervisor. She took me under her wing and taught me above and beyond the typical internship. I’m so grateful for her.
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The nicest thing I ever did was when standing in line at Walmart behind a new college kid coming back for the fall – she was obviously sorting items into must haves, would like to have, and dream world haves – I stepped up and paid for it all much to the shock of my children. I remembered being a college kid – broke – and it was honestly a pleasure to see the look on her face and the clerk’s face. I told her to just do it to another college kid when she is out in the world with a job. I want to do this again it was so much fun!
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The nicest thing anyone has done for me was notice how stressed I was and cancel our evening plans to draw me a bath. He made dinner for me, lit candles, brought me wine to drink in the tub while he cooked. Instead of doing a lot of things we were supposed to do we had a beautiful evening together.
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So neat! Nicest thing is my sweet husband – he loves me unconditionally.
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The first thing that comes to mind is so silly (especially considering that I’m 28 now and well past high school), but it still touches my heart. My friend since early on in grade school Roy, found out when we were seniors in high school that I didn’t have a date to prom. Even though Roy had already asked a girl he liked from another school, he called her and told her he couldn’t take her because a friend needed him. He then came to school the next day and asked me to the prom because he said I was a good friend and couldn’t let me not got to my senior prom. It is the simple things that people do that mean so much. It was such a small thing, but at the time, he knew it meant a lot to me. He always had such a kind heart. This past weekend he got married and I can only imagine how sweet he is and will be to his new wife. She is a lucky lady!
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The nicest thing is too tricky, but a nice thing that made me warm all over was when my college students (who I don’t have in class this year) came by on the first day of school just to say “Hi” and tell me stories.
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My grandmother always was happy to see me, interested to talk to me, and kind, loving, and thoughtful in small ways. While not a single, dramatic instance, this really shaped who I became. This to me is the nicest thing anyone can do for anyone else, and I try to repay her by doing the same with my children.
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The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me is my husband, loving me completely for who I am.
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The nicest thing anyone has done for me was my mother deciding to leave my drug-addicted father to give us a better life. She worked incredibly hard to support us as a self-employed single mother, and I’m incredibly grateful that I was able to grow up without the trauma of untreated addiction in my daily life. She’s my hero.
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This is probably not the very nicest thing anyone has ever done for me, but this summer, when one of my law school classmates learned that I was having two major surgeries between summer school and the fall semester (pre-emptive–to avoid another bout with cancer), she offered repeatedly to do something to help. Although she lives farther than I do from campus, she gladly picked up my copy of a course packet and dropped it by my house.
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When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, friends traveled from all over the country to stay with me when I started chemo.
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I was humiliated to have been dumped by a high school boyfriend, and I dreaded telling all of our mutual friends. He told me to tell everyone that I had broken up with him. It was an incredibly mature act of kindness toward a nervous 17-year-old girl.
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Love this. Nicest thing is when a stranger (he is in my phone as “Mike Samaritan”) called me after my husband crashed his bike and was unconscious to tell me he’d called 911 and would stay with him until the ambulance came.
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One of the nicest things anyone has ever done is show {not tell} me that I have everything I need. Knowing that brings peace and frees my mind and heart to work for others.
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I think anyone who agrees to help you move house more than once is incredibly generous – I’m very lucky to have these people around, and always return the favor.
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Reading all the nice things that people have had done for them could not have been a better way to start my morning! Thank you for this. The world can be a crazy place but I really believe the good so far outweighs the bad.
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My parents watch my daughter two days a week so I can continue working part time at a job I love, knowing that she’s being played with and smothered with kisses, hugs and attention all day long.
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A few years ago, my business partner and my husband got together to throw me a surprise party. I’m the one who usually throws the elaborate parties, and I’m NEVER surprised, but they got me there. They’d even set up secret email accounts to communicate their plans. I was so impressed–they did a better job than I could have done myself! I still think about that evening among friends as one of the best of my life.
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My parents are about to give me money for my first house!
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My parents paid for my college tuition so that I wouldn’t have to worry about paying off student loans when I graduated. That peace of mind, which none of my friends knew, was amazing.
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When I was really little, someone named “The Good Deed Fairy” visited me every night for one week. She’d leave me notes under my pillow with clues to little prizes that were hidden in my room. It was my very first taste of magic. I must’ve been about twenty before I made the connection that the Deed Fairy was actually my older sister. Makes my eyes water to this day every time I think of it! I can’t imagine what I could’ve done to inspire her to do that; I was kind of a pain in the A as a kid! 🙂
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Instead of choosing just one thing, how about the person who is way too good to me? My mom. Knowing I have her unwavering, unconditional support and love in all I do is such an amazing and humbling feeling. If home is a feeling and not a place, it’s there, in the comfort of my mom’s embrace.
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We struggles with infertility for three years before our daughter was born. During this time, my very-fertile sister chose not to conceive her fifth (!) child without telling us. We jut thought they were done with four. When my daughter was six months old, they announced their pregnancy and explained that they wanted to support us and help us through that rough time. So basically, she held off getting pregnant for four years, so as to be nice to me. Amazing.
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The nicest thing that was ever done for me, has actually been done by several people in my life… they were just “there”… cheering me on, pushing me when I felt I couldn’t go on, celebrating my successes, and loving me – flaws and all.
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As a New Orleans native, I’ve been shown my fair share of kindness. After Hurricane Katrina, I became one of the 500,000 nomads roaming the US. I made a quick decision to transfer colleges for the semester since mine was in NOLA, and within a week of escaping the city, I found myself in the middle of the Bronx, starting my last year of college at Fordham. Two very sweet girls took me in without knowing anything at all about me except that I was a “refugee,” and they spent the rest of that semester supporting me and loving me through one of the darkest seasons of my life. I couldn’t have made it without them!
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I am a firm believer that many little things mean much more than large gestures. My husband makes me a daily chocolate milk, reminds me to take my vitamins (which I always forget), and just last week bought me a card for no reason at all. Being himself is the nicest thing he could ever do.
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What a wonderful organization!
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Most recently? A prepared meal from a neighbor, for no apparent reason other than “just because.” Love that.
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when my daughter brought me breakfast in bed- a stale bagel, a mangled banana and a cup of water. (better than french pastries and a cup of stumptown!)
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It’s a good sign when I can’t think of just one, right? The nicest thing lately is my husband being very thoughtful and nice even though I’ve got a very stressful situation happening in another area of my life!
Such a great idea – commenting to help others! Thank you!
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I second Serena’s comment – I was having a bad start to the week and this has changed it all around. Thank you for posting!!!
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The nicest thing my closest family and friends have done for me is to love me for who I am… even through the ups and downs… and to remind me when I’ve forgotten.
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Thank you for doing this!
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I haven’t had time to think about my nicest thing but I just had to say that reading The Odd Broad’s comment has made me cry. I love stories of kids doing awesome kind things for each other. Your sister rocks!
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Too many things, from my mother who answers her phone at three AM if that’s where I call, to friends who order me dinner when I’m sick, to folks who support me even when I’m in the midst of making horribly stupid decisions because they know the support is way more important than telling me what to do ever could be.
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