Good Deeds

Sorry about not posting yesterday. I was busy working on some other projects during my lunch break. Then today I forgot to bring in the pictures that I wanted to show you so instead all I have to post are examples of the projects that I was working on or more pictures from Marissa's wedding. I hope you don't mind that I decided to save the wedding pictures for another day.

Our friend Jason has started his own car detailing business so I was helping him design a business card. Which one do you like?

I also had to create a flyer for our ward Easter egg hunt

It's not exactly great, but I only had a few minutes of my lunch left, so there you go . . .

I know that this blog is already full of random projects that I pick up so I feel like I should explain. I think I used to be a pretty thoughtful person until I started graduate school. Suddenly, I found myself married, working full-time at a commercial real estate agency, going to graduate school at night, and working a second job on the weekend as a wedding photographer's assistant. I had to become selfish with my time to get everything done and I got so wrapped up in my own life.

I quit my weekend job before my last quarter of graduate school because I needed more time to prepare for my thesis defense. Then when I graduated, I wasn't really sure what to do with myself. I found I wasn't the same naturally thoughtful person and it bothered me, so I set a goal for myself to do one act of service for someone else everyday. It doesn't sound too difficult, right? We all do things for other people all the time, but I made a rule that it couldn't be something that I already would have done, and it couldn't be work related.

It's been over a year now and it's amazing what a difference this silly little goal has made in me. It changed the way that I interact with people. I find I really, truly try to listen to other people now because I'm not just trying carry on a conversation, I'm trying to figure out what is going on in everyone's lives and discover what I can do to help them. I keep a log of things that I do (which I had to do to really hold myself accountable and get myself motivated) and in the beginning on some days it was hard to come up with even one thing, but it's a little more natural now and some days I have lots of things to add to my list.

But if I do something for you, don't think it's just so I can check off my act of service for the day; it's because I want to be a caring person, I want to take advantage of the opportunities that arise to help my friends and my family, and I want you to know that you are important to me.