Rocking Awesome

As part of my “23 Things To-Do While I’m 23” list, I promised myself I would do a random act of kindness once a month for a whole year. We stayed at my mom’s this past weekend, and my litte brother was kind enough to take the couch while James and I slept in his room. We set a pack and play up next to the bed, and it looked like a baby slash Cathy bomb blew up before we were ready to leave. I wanted to leave his room as clean as we had found it, so I packed our things, made up his bed, put his toys away, and hung up his church clothes. As I was walking down the hall to go downstairs, I looked into my ten year-old sister’s room.

She is so much like me when I was that age. I loved to read, I was smart, I loved sports, and adored being in the middle of all of the adults while they told funny stories… but I also always had a messy room. I remembered how overwhelmed I used to feel about my bedroom, and how good it felt when I got home from school some days and walked into a spotlessly clean room. My mom would occasionally snap and clean up the mess, but most of the time she did it out of love. I wanted to serve Elizabeth and pay the favor forward. I quickly set to work by picking up all of her dirty clothes and putting them in her hamper. I put all of her craft things in one drawer, her books in another. I made her bed, put her shoes away, organized what was left of her Halloween candy, and swept the floor. My mom came in and told me that Elizabeth was going to be very surprised and happy, so I was looking forward to seeing her reaction when she came bouncing up the stairs.

She walked by her room and stopped. The floor was clean, her bed was made, and the clutter was gone- the glow from the pink shade on her lamp was inviting, and a huge smile spread across her face. She embraced my mom and exclaimed, “YOU GUYS ARE ROCKING AWESOME!” Mom laughed and said, “Cathy did it!” and Elizabeth gave me a huge hug.

I’ve been called many things, but so far I think “rocking awesome” is my favorite.