1. When I was very young, I was told all dogs had very good hearing so whenever I saw one in public, I would whisper how good they are.

2. When I was little I used to secretly put my money in my parents’ wallets so they could have it without knowing.

3. In our house we have a safe. In the safe there is an envelope of our online accounts and PW in case one of us dies. One of the notes is instructions to an email account my wife doesn’t know about. If she access the account, she’ll find hundreds of love letters (or love emails) to her.

4. My dad always retells stories and a few sentences in he’ll ask, “Have I told you this before?” I always say no because I love hearing him tell stories, and he loves telling them. Even when I’ve heard it so much that I have it memorized.

5. Maybe it was very dumb and slightly creepy of me but back in 7th grade I would follow a lot of people from school on Instagram and often I would see that some classmates and friends were depressed or just going through a rough time so I would write them a letter with some encouraging words, and put in like $10 from the money I had saved up through the years and tell them to buy something nice with it. I would watch them during school to see what their locker was and sneak out during class to go to the “restroom” and put the letter in their locker.

6. I sneak kisses on my husband while he’s asleep. He’s so cute when he’s asleep.

7. My parents don’t really know how to use tech much. I’ve been slowly teaching them step by step on stuff like Facebook, using a phone, using a tablet, etc. They like going to Starbucks a lot, so I set them up with an account and taught them how to use it. However I set my credit card to be used whenever they go and buy coffee.

8. In high school, I started a compliments page for my school on Facebook. People would write in compliments about each other and I’d post them anonymously. I was deeply depressed and wanted to make a positive impact in my community when I felt really powerless. I never told anyone who was behind it, but knowing the kindness people showed their friends and classmates was really special and solidified my faith in humanity when I was at a real low point in my life.

9. I tell each of my pets I love them and goodnight before we go to sleep.

10. I like paying the checks anonymously for couples dining out.

11. I have more videos of my friends laughing and just being generally happy saved than I have of anything else.

12. I have divorced parents. Whenever they both want to have dinner with me, I have 2 dinners so I don’t have to choose between them. They both have extremely busy schedules.

13. I compliment people no matter what they look like because I’m trying to be the person I need when my depression hits hard.

14. I’m the person secretly sending the flowers the elderly ladies at the nursing home once a month. They deserve it and are the sweetest things.

15. My mom divorced my abusive father when I was 10. She was going through a hard time, sleep walking and doing weird stuff. I would wake up and bring her back to bed.

One night, I got up out of bed to check on her. She was sleeping peacefully. So I just stood there and watched her. Then I kissed her on the cheek and went back to bed.

Years later, I overheard her telling a friend about that rough time in her life. And how one night, she felt like she was kissed by an angel and finally found peace.

I guess I was her angel.

16. Every year my school did the thing where you could by someone a chocolate rose on Valentine’s Day and choose to remain anonymous. They were like 10 dollars and really crummy. But every year I’d save what I could and buy the people I thought were least likely to get one a rose so they had a good day.

17. I act interested and excited every time someone tells me something that they are passionate about despite them repeating it to me for the nth time. I am just happy they wanted to share it with me!

18. I won’t share this with anyone, but once I was at a diner that had one of those grapple arcade machines. I saw two little girls trying to get an Elsa stuffed figure, and they ended up losing their money trying to get it, so I called them over, and said I would win it for them. Once I said it I was scared because I realized I promised something that I couldn’t do, but I got super lucky and got it first try. I gave it to the girls, it made their day, and their smiles made mine. Moral of the story? Little things like that can make a big difference, so go make someone’s day.

19. I’m in the process of designing my girlfriend’s engagement ring so that I can propose to her this fall. She has no idea I’ve been talking to a silversmith, and I can’t wait to ask her to be my wife.

20. I watch my stepmother’s streams and talk to her. She doesn’t know it’s me and she always gets excited when viewers talk to her.

21. I keep a list of things that I observe people I love enjoying or wanting so I know what to get them for Christmas/birthday presents.

22. I hooked up my friend with his crush without both of them knowing. They are going now 3 years strong.

23. I’m about 14 years older than my sister, who’s going to be a junior in high school in the fall. She’s extremely smart, and has been taking classes for college credit since 8th grade. She’s already being scouted by recruiters from some of the best schools in the country, including MIT and Cornell.

She doesn’t know it yet, but wherever she chooses to go to school, it’s already paid for. I set up a trust fund to give her a full college education with no debt.

24. Due to a complicated inside joke among my friends, I run a meme account on Instagram called great_blue_heron. It’s literally just an account my friends follow where I post low-effort memes about herons, complete with a heron profile picture.

For some reason though, every few days random wildlife photographers will tag the account in pictures they take of great blue herons. I’ve never told anyone this, but after I while I started liking and commenting on all the posts, usually complimenting them on their photography skills. It’s nice to think that my obscure shitposting account can brighten someone’s day with a little chaotic energy.

25. Every now and then when I find cool looking trees I’ll give them a pat.

26. I put together a surprise Christmas for my sister, her husband, and their five kids about a decade ago after finding out they didn’t have any money for presents due to emergency expenses.

Dropped off family presents for the twelve days prior to the holiday (coats one night, a big dinner one night, hot chocolate kits, etc) and once my (then) husband’s ridiculously rich family found out what I was doing, they joined the cause. By Christmas Eve we had about $4k in presents ranging from clothes, to toys, to Home Depot gift cards to drop off. Hired a Santa lookalike to ring the doorbell at 10pm and drop the toys off for us. He also ended up giving them $500 of his own money.

She still has no idea who was behind it to this day, and I hope she never finds out. She and her now-grown kids still talk about “the magic Christmas Santa visited us.”

27. I want to be a dad. I want that more than any career goal I’ve ever made. Even though that hasn’t happened yet, I’ve had the opportunity to “adopt” college kids in my town: teaching them to dance, helping them figure out dating, making them tea, teaching them games, and talking through all sorts of life with them. I get to laugh with them and I get to cry with them, and I make them better off when they return to their families. One of them carved me a walking stick with a beautiful small bird whittled into the handle. I almost started crying as he said the words: Happy Father’s Day.

28. My boyfriend tends to grind his teeth at night during his deepest sleep cycles or when he’s having a stressful dream. To help lull him out of the dream and get him to relax so he doesn’t wake up with a sore jaw, I start rubbing his arm, gently call out his name, and in an overly loving whisper say things like, “I love you. You’re the best. I’m right here. You’re my guy.” And then I ask him very politely to please stop grinding his teeth.

He always responds with happy murmurs even though he’s dead asleep and then calms down enough where he stops grinding and drifts back off without ever actually waking up. He generally has no idea I do this and I just smile to myself when he wakes the following day remarking how great he slept.

29. I live in a village that is like 80% old people meaning they can’t walk up to the church and see their loved ones graves very often. Once a month I go into the graveyard and clean all the graves and make sure they have fresh flowers on them and they look nice. I got caught once by an elderly lady who has since died – I take extra time on hers because she was just so sweet.

30. A few years ago I was out with a friend at a restaurant celebrating and he feels super awkward about having stuff paid for for him, so he asked us all not to pay for his dinner. I gave the waiter my card and told her to tell him that his dinner was on the house because it was his birthday. He believed it and keeps raving about how that restaurant has great service now. He still doesn’t know it was me but it makes me smile every time he talks about how much he likes the restaurant.

31. When my friends were going to do a prank and I figured it out I would still fall for it to see them happy.

32. I like paying the fare for whoever is behind me on bridges.

33. My best friend thinks I collect comic books as a hobby, but I just buy a lot of comic books because he’s into them and always reads them, but doesn’t have enough to buy his own.

34. I’ve skipped multiple nights of sleep and assignments to make sure the minor inconveniences my friends had was something I could fix. Because I’m not much without those people.

35. Whenever I have a couple pennies on hand and I’m out and about, I leave lucky pennies here and there for others to find.