May: The month of Kindness

Forgive the cringe worthy title but in all the busyness and stress that Uni has brought back into my life after only two weeks of being back, I wanted to celebrate a particular point of my accommodation life. The coolest thing about living in a university halls of residence is the many events and opportunities that arise throughout the year in celebration of something important or just because they can. It is May, that means that it is the Month of Kindness that celebrates everything joyful and pink. Kindness month is a way for the residences to combine two very important causes, Breast Cancer Awareness and Pink Shirt Day. If one walks around the hall at the moment you will see an array of pink decorating the hall with a schedule of events big and small to celebrate this month.

This month of pure positivity has thus far seen the hall come together to do some cheeky speed dating, mainly just to get people talking to those who they may not have necessarily mixed with because they aren’t on their floors/apartments or not doing the same degrees. This was definitely a lot of fun, mainly because I was afraid I was walking into an actual blind speed dating situation but found it just to be a time of laughter and getting to talk to people who I hadn’t had the chance to previously. We had an awesome open mic session to celebrate all the talents that we have here at Uni Hall, everyone was super supportive on the night which was really cool for those performing as it meant that they felt comfortable enough to do so.

Something the RAs (Resident Advisers) did to bring more positivity to the hall was to post a whole bunch of encouraging little comments on every floor, in every bathroom, and even on the stairwell. They’ve made it so you can’t really walk more than a couple of metres without encountering some sort of motivational or encouraging note. These simple messages are everywhere but although somewhat corny are still effective in raising the attitude in the hall itself.

With these notes as examples residents from the hall are being encouraged to write their own stories of kindness, talking about a time where kindness has impacted their life or even just write a nice compliment and put it in a box. At the end of the month there will be the final event which is the “Pink Room”. I am looking forward to the events that are yet to come, only this morning I set off with a handful of people from the hall who were up and eager at 6:30am to go for a walk down the famous pink cycleway in the CBD (If you haven’t done it, I would recommend). Coming up later in the month we have another walk, we have a Breast Cancer breakfast, also on Pink Shirt day we are trying to get  every single resident in both the towers and the apartments to get a pink shirt or a white shirt that they can crazily paint pink, and on pink shirt day Uni Hall will be decked out in pink proudly support the Anti Bullying campaign. Pink Shirt day itself is probably the one I am looking forward to most as all the halls are really pushing for it so when we go to Uni that day it will be full of people dressed in pink taking a stand against bullying and discrimination.

When the hall does things like this it makes me really proud to be where I am, it is nice that the halls of residences aren’t just having a Uni focus all of the time. We actually pay attention to key issues and acknowledge them. Through this we get the opportunity to celebrate and encourage each other which makes this living experience all the better.

Thank you guys so much for reading and remember to be kind to one another, until next time.

Hakuna Matata