WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE SO NICE AND OTHERS SO NEGATIVE?

 

What a beautiful day!  Tonight, I continued on Lover's Lane where I left off yesterday.  I went back clean up this mess.  It's right off the sidewalk.

Want to take a guess at how many pieces are here?  All the pieces are pretty big.  

There were only 200 pieces of bags, cups, bottles and car parts here.  It looked like a lot more.

I got that all cleaned up, and I was feeling good about it.  What an amazing day I had!  It seems like everybody I know saw the news story on Channel 5 and had nice things to say about it.

We had a sales meeting first thing this morning, and my sales manager announced that there was a "movie star" in the room, referring to me when I had a mouthful of bagel!  

How funny is that?  I got a big kick out of it.

Even though there were only 200 pieces, my trash cart was stuffed.  I had to go back to the car and get a new bag.

As I was finishing up, a man walked by, dragging one leg.  It scared me a tiny bit, and then he said, "Hey, aren't you the woman who cleans up trash over on Wilbeth?"  I told him that was me.  He said, "God bless you."

So I got a new bag and headed out again.  I was on one of the side streets, and a herd of teenage girls came walking down the sidewalk.  One of them squealed and said, "Hey, I saw you on Instagram!  Didn't you pick up like about five million pieces of trash?"  I told her 500,000, but that was me.  They were fun!

I only picked up 1,498 pieces of trash today, because everybody wanted to talk, and that's okay.  I'll do better tomorrow.

I was almost back to my car, and an older woman with a cane came out of her house, and said, "Debbie, can I have your autograph?"  I walked across the street, and she started telling me how crazy I was to be in this ghetto neighborhood, and went on and on and on about how dangerous it is.  She insisted that I take one of her little things of mace and showed me how to use it.

I absolutely know her heart was in the right place, but I hope I never stay locked in my house and live in fear.  I've been out picking up trash all over Akron for over a year now, and I've never had a single problem with anyone trying to hurt me.  

I told her I didn't want to listen to any more scary stories.  She told me I was young and naive!  I'm pretty sure I'm older than she is, and I hardly think I'm naive.  I'm always aware of what's going on around me, and I'm careful.  I'm doing what I love to do, living my life to the fullest.

Why are some people so nice and others so negative?  I think it's a choice.