54: Reflection – This Is The End.

For my FINAL blog post of Project 54 – *whew! – I feel like straight up writing. Just dumping my thoughts and feelings and experiences from working on this assignment throughout the semester – KIND, the brand the snack the project.  Here’s my attempt to express myself and lay it all out there in 45 minutes. The “I” in Kind because this post is about me and the relationship I built with this brand.

How did Kind affect me?

This brand keeps me aware of my surroundings.

This whole semester I’ve been taking random ass pictures and videos and collecting random things just in case of another post. The project kept me on edge and thinking. My brain honestly feels KIND-ed OUT!

But it seriously got me thinking about my life and the decisions I make pertaining to foods I consume and my mannerisms.

I tried this thing where I give at least 2 meaningful compliments to total strangers each day. It feels good and mentally relaxing. I know I made someone smile that day, which I will cherish that thought.

Kind makes me think twice before I throw something away, do something mean, or before I decide to become a couch potato for the night.

Kind keeps me on track.

..

What do I really think of the taste?

Everything is actually really sweet to me.

On the upper tangent of sweetness, but I don’t have to guilty consuming some.

Tastes really raw and fresh. Tastes tangy from the fruit, sweet from the syrup and chocolate, and nutty from the various nuts.

For a healthy product that does not promote weight gain, diabetes, and high cholesterol it’s pretty damn delicious.

I like how it tastes real and without refined sugars and processed ingredients.

..

What I think about “good for your body”?

Health is certainly more important to me now.

I’m more conscious to food that are good for my body, than food that taste good from fake additives and MSG.

You only get one body. Without health you cannot accomplish much in life. So that should be your #1 goal as my father would say. He was always right about that and now I understand.

Good for you body means more than a walk and eating an apple. You have to be good inside and out. You have to take care of it by fueling it with the right ingredients. You must exercise it. Your mental psychology is part of being healthy too. Happy mind, Happy body. You can be nutritionally healthy, but that can be easily overshadowed by a melancholy mindset.

Smiling is contagious and you can fool your body into feeling like it’s emotionally cheerful by forcing yourself to smile physically. Try it, it seriously works.

..

My thoughts on impacting and giving back to the community:

As a young adult influencing the society is in our hands. We are the generation of today. We must take care of our home and our neighbors.

Spreading kindness feels good and like I left a positive mark in life.

There are people and places less fortunate than ourselves. Especially during this holiday season and working on this project keeps the thought of being charitable and courteous looming through my mind all day and night.

…

I think that all I have gained, learned, and encountered during this project helped me open my eyes to new things, helped me break out of my comfort zone in a sense, and taught me the importance of giving back to the community as well as taking care of yourself and the one life you are given. I found out a lot about society today and about myself. I’m going to work to make better changes to my life and how I live it. It is so easy to lose sight of the significant things these days because they get overshadowed by technology, greed, and luxury. Technology makes people lazy and out of touch with real, natural things in the world. Greed is everywhere and selflessness is hard to come across. Greed is not Kind, greed does not impact society positively. Luxuries make people more careless about the environment and blind to life’s essential things. For example, not caring for the community and environment endangers wildlife and available resources for the future. Pretty soon we will all be buried in toxins inside and outside our body. We must first care for ourselves in order to care for others. Kind is a brand and product that directs us towards that first step towards “Doing the Kind Thing” by exemplifying good acts from across the world on their site. Making life changes for a healthier body is made easy due to these scrumptious snacks!

(the 45 minutes comes from the brainstorming, outlining, and putting my ideas into structured sentences. It also comes from the thinking and writing.)

Always Remember:

53: Reflection – Halloween Watch

Sat down for a hard reflection on the things I’ve done this semester that relate to Kind brand’s mission and influence. One of the more rewarding and memorable events was participating in Alpha Kappa Lambda’s Annual Halloween Watch. Even though it was months ago, I will always remember the rewarding feeling of heartfelt “thank you’s” from compassionate parents.

This is an event that takes place on Halloween every year hosted by the brothers of AKL. The way it works is that all the members of sororities and fraternities on this VCU campus get together before trick-or-treating starts. A police officer is invited to speak with us about possible dangers and what to look out for. Shirts are distributed to us so that each student can be easily identified from the crowd. (A safety measure).
Groups are randomly assigned and you split up into groups with random people from other orgs. This is great because we get to meet new peers in your community and reduces cliques from forming. Then you are given a specific route on the map to patrol. All of VCU campus and a good portion of the fan area are flooded with students come nightfall.

The purpose of this event is to provide extra means of security in addition to the police since Halloween is a dangerous day to be out. Us college kids walk around making sure there are no creepers and no lost children roaming the streets. Its absolutely rewarding like crazy. One, it’s really fun because people in the fan district go all out and decorate their houses with huge props and epic costumes. Two, parents offer you hot food like pizza and hot dogs along with the tons of candy available. This event is especially heartwarming for me. On multiple occasion parents have approached my group and I thanking us and praising us for keeping their children save. Together we provide a safe area for young kids to trick-or-treat and allows the parents to be a little more relaxed during the night. They are really nice and thankful people out there and it makes me smile to encounter those people.

Okay, all the candy and junk food aren’t healthy for you, but they sure do taste delicious. At least we’re getting physical exercise by scouting miles of campus. Out of the kindness of our heart and time we impact the community by providing extra security and ease parents’ minds. We work together with everyone in hopes of a safe, fun, and minimally stress holiday. Participating in Halloween Watch is gratifying and it’s great to see the whole community really coming together for the healthy and protection of the future generation of children.

52: Reflection – Poetry

These are the last couple posts for this project. I thought I would try something new; one of the other suggested ways to upload content. Had the urge to try something other than picture and videos.

I never write, so I thought I would try something pertaining to a pencil and paper. I started with a couple of drafts and none of them were intriguing. I think the way this is written is interesting and unique to me and my mind.

I think I wrote a poem, but I can’t be too sure. It has to definite structure for any type of poem, but the content reflects how I perceive this brand and project. It’s hard to explain how to read this poem, but when I was writing it it definitely made sense….

It is kind of like a sentence snake where the words just keep flowing. Each line is a thought on its own. They are all sort of statements. The last word of each sentence moved on to be the first word and topic of the next line.

*Maybe I should try to guide you through it a bit:

KIND – a word consisting of 4 letters. 

The word is also an act. An act of kindness. 

With a good deed, there is no need for verbal language. A nice gesture is understood by any person.

If there is an awkward or tense barrier between people, being genuine and generous is a good icebreaker. 

These acts are felt by human emotions and are not said through words only. [even compliments are felt. They make you feel good, which otherwise would just a statement and not a gesture]

Time doesn’t stop for any person. Cherish it. 

In order to make the most of it, you need to be healthy so you can experience life first-hand.

You only get one body.

Then, I incorporate the bold flavors of these Kind snacks. The nuts, fruits, and sweeteners taste so flavorful and not bland. 

A good community/environment/home makes for a happy and healthy life. Your surroundings play a crucial role in shaping who you grow up to be.

51: Reflection – KINDa Lisa

This is as good as my art gets. My materpiece. My Mona Lisa!

This one survived out of all the other drafts.

The directive – “Reflection” – got me to think about how I see KIND and what it makes me think of. My first responses to it.

I had to sit and seriously reflect, but all I could come up with were all these one word descriptions…so I drew them out.

I decided to express that in an illustration of different doodles that make up the simple and most immediate thoughts pertaining to this brand.

.:Red KIND:.

The actual word “KIND” written in block letters.

Each individual letter was designed with the word “kind” filling in the space in different patterns.

Written in Tile, Vertical, Stretched-Out, Mirrored/Backwards.

.:Blue Globe (Earth) with an Infinity Sign:.

One small, random kind act could be the start of infinate good deeds.

Spread the word.

Human life is a cycle.

What we do today will affect the future.

.:Purple Squirrel:.

Because all I can think of with this brand are nuts, granola, nuts, and more nuts, which remind me of squirrels and Ice Age and yeah…

.:Orange and Yellow Flames:.

Most the Kind snack products associate with a toasty flavor [because of the nuts and how they are cooked or seasoned].

“Toasty” – reminds me of a fireplace and roasting snacks by the fire.

50: NoDirective – Natural Beauty

When it comes to you face all-natural everything is the best. Most people don’t know this but the skin on your face is as thin and fragile as tissue paper. Apply too much artificial chemicals to your skin destroys it and even using too much pressure from your fingers damages it. While looking at make-up I noticed there is a lot of ingredients I can’t even pronounce and a lot of alcohol incorporated in the recipe. I want lipstick for the color and softness. I don’t want my lips to get even more dry, some brands do that so you’ll keep applying more and buy more later on, and taste like something fake and gross.

There has been a lot of red being advertised this year. It’s the new bold, “IT” color. Red it shall be. I came up with my own lipstick recipe that is wonderful for you because it only has 3 ingredients, it’s simple, and it moisturizes your lips.  Pomegrante, slightly more ripe and juicy darker cherries, and petroleum jelly. You simply mix and let it sit for a while. The remix to mash in the color. Petroleum jelly is insoluble and repels water. It’s used for coating and moisturizing purposes. It does not absorb into the skin which is great because it leaves you with easily removed, natural color and softness. You don’t have to rub it off and it’ll probably taste decent if you accidentally rub some on  your teeth. Its healthier for your skin since it doesn’t contain any harsh chemicals or alcohol compounds. You just reep the benefits of the product.

Looks like:

 

 

Applied by brush/finger & Goes on like:

49: NoDirective – Hashtag Happiness

#Happiness

We live by a very cause-effect, action-reward world where people need to be pushed to be selfless and have incentives that benefit themselves before others. So…whenever a person does something Kind for someone else and hashtags “#kindhappy” on Twitter they get sent a box of Kind snacks as a reward or a thank you type. Things such as volunteer work, donations, random acts of kindness. Kind products sure are savory, but they aren’t the cheapest of healthy products. If a person is willing to take the effort in becoming better and  healthier then they should be given the chance with a starter box of snacks. This incentive motivates individuals to go out and do something kind even if it’s for a certain benefit. The idea is to make people go and do a kind act each, further stimulating the ripple effect.

Kicking off the first act of kindness was volunteering to clean up Brown’s Island near the downtown area where many homeless people reside. There was so much trash we filled up bags and bags full. It was a group effort between my sorority and Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity. We spent the greater part of a Saturday morning and afternoon picking up broken glass and litter so the jogging path and the plant life can be cleaner and less hazardous for the general public. Giving back to the community by ridding it of waste and rendering it more tasteful to look at and reside in. We promote good health by reducing the bacteria-filled trash people have to be around. Keeping waste in your vicinity increases the chance of infection and air borne diseases. Thanks to the clean up event the air is fresher to breathe and the land is open for new grass to grow. It felt great. We had fun and worked together happily without seeking any type of compensation besides good company.

48: NoDirective – “There’s an App for that!”

A new app designed to draw attention and awareness about all the good things people do for their community. Taking the #kindawesome hashtag, and the “Do the Kind Thing” slogan and putting those into mobile advertisement gimmicks. People can see other things individuals do for their home and surroundings. All the volunteer work and charitable acts will be accumulated into this app whenever someone hashtags for Kind.

You can also use this app for purchasing purposes as well. There will be an interactive menu for all the different products, gift packages, and flavors offered by Kind. You can also see all the nutritional facts and ingredients for each in case of curiosity or allergies.

There will also be a link to social media outlets for updating your status or posting the good things you do for your community, ideas on how to live a healthier life, and sharing reviews of the tasty treats before buying them in case you don’t like the flavor.

This idea struck me when Instagram starting posting advertisements in the dashboard. There’s an app for anything and everything these days. Most people don’t even use actual web pages anymore because most companies have apps for interaction, purchasing, or informational purposes about their products. Everything is in the palm of your hand….literally on your mobile device.

Maybe the app will be top-rated someday. L O L ^.^

 

47: NoDirective – Out with the old, In with the new

So finals week is approaching and all the holiday drinks are released. Starbucks is booming and the lines are ridiculous already. I’m brainwashed by this project already. I feel biased towards Kind bars now. When I walk into Starbucks I always remember how they removed all the Kind products from their counters and replaced them with their own Starbucks brand products. That’s fine, but I feel like someone excluded my beloved child from joining in the party. So to spite them, Kind creates their own cafe. 

Starbucks is expensive and really unhealthy. They capitalize on society’s addiction to caffeine and name brands. In a previous post I discussed Kind’s new all-natural, already sweetened coffee. Using that, why not create Kind’s own coffee brewery. This place would focus on organic items and use recycled material cups and charge as much as coffee should cost. The bakery items would come from local bakeries fresh daily, the coffee beans would be grown locally as well, and the cups and plates would all be made from recycled materials.

The Kind cafe would offer fresh and organic donuts too. This will help people to stop consuming artificially flavored donuts from places like Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme. One donut from either place is as much carbs and calories one should consume throughout their whole day. America loves donuts and their breakfast sandwiches with their caffeine; especially those always on-the-go career focused individuals.

This place would also be friendly to man’s best friend, the canine. There are not many places that are welcoming to pets and I know from experience that sometimes it’s inconvenient for me to be a customer to those places. It deters me from being able to freely go on coffee dates for fear of leaving my pet at home too long. 

46: NoDirective – Hot Yoga

Hot yoga is yoga done in a closed room that’s heated to about 105-110 degrees farenheit. Hot yoga is supposed to help lose weight, sweat out body toxins, and for people with muscle/joint injuries. The heated and slow movements of the body makes it safe for seniors and teens and people who aren’t able to be too active. The breathing exercises and poses increase oxygen to your blood and benefit the nervous system too. 

The first time I tried hot yoga it was just utterly painful and I sweated in places I didn’t even know a human could. It was really really challenging and exhausting. You really have to go fully hydrated and mentally prepared to be locked into the heated room for 1.5 hours. But in the end I felt better than I have in a long time. I felt alive, refreshed, and light. 

Working on this project and being more health conscious led me to try new things to promote a healthy lifestyle. I’m going to continue to attend these classes I’ve stumbled upon. It even makes my post-workout meals taste better because after the class I feel so rejuvenated and starving. This is one of the healthiest activities for your body and mind. One class relieves so much stress and takes away all your negative energy/thoughts. Mental relaxation is also a plus point for hot yoga. Pushing myself through the class makes me mentally stronger and physically healthier. A less stressed community entail a happier environment to live in. 

45: Motivation – Story Time

This idea comes from the activity we did in class. The one where we wrote for 4 minutes and made up a story pertaining to the $1 bill.

We spend a good portion of the class attempting to take Victor’s written work and relating that to Kind brand with alternative endings. This was the day we talked about not plopping the product/brand into the story. Everyone had good ideas, so I’m gonna give it a shot too.

This is the jist of the story from what I can remember…..:

There was a kid that was bullied and had a $1. He was fed up with it and he had this strong desire to buy a tank. That was his life goal.He was motivated to invest that $1, which later became a large sum of money. The boy, as a man, was able to purchase the tank after years of saving. There was an old man that played a part in the story…..I think he was like a mentor figure to the boy. Maybe he wanted the tank?….and the boy was just an associate? Something about, by that time the old guy couldn’t even drive that tank?…

This is my attempt at relating it and making up a good ending: 

Changing the overall characters in the story, there was an obsessive person. The young boy was infatuated with the notion that Kind is the best of the best of the best granola brand. The boy still invests the $1, which he later purchases the tank with. This time, the brand and his obsession was the motivating factor. He wanted to use that tank to demolish the competitor brands that his crazy mental psychy told him weren’t good enough. He twisted mind didn’t believe there was a point or purpose for these other brands to even compete. He used the tank to physically destroy those brands’ factories. The future generations end up only knowing stories about these other brands existing, but the next generation only knew about Kind brand. Kind became a successful empire for granola and healthy snack products without any other competitors. All the future knew was Kind, to be kind, the taste of kind products that became the norm, and to spread kindness in society like the mission statement states. The future, brainwashed by Kind and only kind.