Bored Panda

Jahnabi

Community Member

Jahnabi

Community Member

Follow (3) Unfollow

0 posts

180 comments

208 upvotes

130 points

no matter how you feel, get up dress up show up and never give up! :-)

Follow (3) Unfollow

Overview
Posts
List Additions
Comments
Upvotes
My Pandas

Jahnabi • upvoted an item 1 week ago

45 'Forbidden Food' Examples You Shouldn't Ever Eat (New Pics)

...sponsored by local dentists.

Jahnabi • upvoted 12 items 2 weeks ago

Forbidden Avocado

Forbidden Ramen

People-Share-Growing-Up-Poor-Unwritten-Rules

Not really a societal expectation, but more of a familial one. I never once knew how closely my family toed the poverty line, thanks to how my parents ran things. My dad, though, he would volunteer me all the time to help friends, family, coworkers in need, if I was able to at all. Never let me ask for a single dollar from them, unless it was explicitly "a job" and for, say, a friend of a friend. I helped his coworker move a handful of times. I cut my elderly neighbor's grass. I helped so-and-so connect their internet, or a friend of his to replace their carpet. I had no idea what my old man was fostering in both me and them. When I moved out on my own, his coworker called, offered to help. Showed up with antiques from his late mother as a housewarming gift for my wife and I. The man who's grass I cut? He passed away, and left me his piano, since he knew I liked to play. The friend with the carpet? Hooked me up with a decent paying job right out of college. The internet-illiterate ones? Solid mechanics, and know my vehicle inside and out. He was teaching me something so much more than just an exchange of goods and services. These weren't I.O.U.s coming due. The man knew the value of community and friendship, and just how far people would go for someone else if they just cared, even an ounce. It bleeds over in my day to day, now, too. I may see someone at the grocery store struggling to find a product, so I take the time to help them out. It costs me only a few minutes, and I may never see them again. Or, I find out the person I helped is the very same one standing behind the counter at the DMV, and makes my time just a little bit shorter as a thanks. TL;DR, my pops taught me the value of kindness.