Thanks For Watching

Six months ago, a simple online order for Cafe Rio quickly turned into an opportunity to do something fun. When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. When Cafe Rio gives you someone else's order and refuses to take it back, you make an Instagram video to document you giving it to a complete stranger. That's how the old adage goes right? Maybe not, but here in 2019 I'm pretty sure my Instagram story would be the proverbial lemonade in this equation. All metaphors aside, working on Maxican Food has been more fun than watching Duke lose in the Elite Eight (okay last one). Twenty-six weeks of Maxican Food have taught me so many invaluable life lessons, but three stand out among the rest.

Learn To Help Others In A Way That Generates The Greatest Positive Impact

When it comes to helping others, intentions can be your best friend and your worst enemy all at the same time. Intentions can lead you in the right direction, or they can drag you far, far away from where you want to end up. Just because I intend on helping a homeless person find their next meal doesn't mean I am acting in their best long-term interest. I could actually be creating an unsustainable cycle in their life, making them reliant on people like me to provide for them what they could be doing for themselves. On the other hand, perhaps the woman on the side of the road is desperate for a meal within the next hour. Perhaps she is withering away by the minute because no one is willing to spare a few dollars for her to eat at the nearest fast food joint to receive a mediocre amount of nutritional value. The opposite sides of this spectrum are representative of the constant battle at hand, for both myself and those in need. How do I approach this situation? Who am I to determine which person needs food right now and which person can provide for themselves? This is a tricky situation to say the least, and yet I feel a responsibility to find a universal solution to this issue. And herein lies the frustrating yet curiosity-provoking point: the universal solution is that there is no universal solution. For us to help others in a way that generates the greatest positive impact, we must take the time to observe their situation to the best of our abilities. Talk to them. Understand what brought them here. Make them know there are people out there who want the best for them, demonstrating that there are people in this world who are looking out for one another. If we don't understand their situation, we won't put ourselves in a position to create a tangible impact in the lives of others.

Learn When To Push Yourself And When To Rest

For me, this was the overarching theme of Maxican Food. Not only was it a challenge to continue finding new ways of giving food to someone every week, but I also tried to make every episode somewhat entertaining. I figured people wouldn't watch if I posted the same exact video every week, and if my intention was to encourage others to take action, I would have a hard time accomplishing that with zero viewers. In all honesty, this became a bit of a burden on me, playing a major role in why I decided to walk away from the project in the end. Sometimes it seemed too difficult to walk that line between helping others in the most impactful way possible while still creating an entertaining video that others would watch. If it weren't for the encouraging words from several friends, Maxican Food would have ended awhile ago. The support I received from others generated within me a desire to push myself further; to accomplish more with this project, and continue finding ways to help and inspire others simultaneously. Eventually, I decided my time and energy are better spent elsewhere at this point in my life. There seems to be a delicate balance between pushing myself and resting in certain circumstances, and Maxican Food presented both sides of that discussion. When it comes time to decide between the two, it is best to understand how I am best positioned to create value for others' lives, and choose to focus on how I can maximize that.

Understand When To Care What Others Think

To say I struggle with this aspect of life would be quite the understatement; and yet, I feel I have come such a long way in understanding how best to approach the subject. My opinion regarding this subject may be different than others'. From my perspective, I want to be someone who encourages others to experience more joy in life. I aim to be someone people can come to when they need support in a tough situation. With that being said, I believe it is my responsibility to lead a life that presents myself in a way that people feel comfortable looking to me for encouragement and support. This inherently means that I care what others think of me, because if I intend on supporting and encouraging others I need to position myself as someone who has their own life under control (I'm far off from that, but you get the point. I think). At the same time, I acknowledge that I cannot control others' perceptions of me. I could do everything exactly how I have planned for the rest of my life and there will still be people who have issues with me. And that is completely okay. I know I will never be able to please everyone. That's not why I'm here. I believe my main purpose is to impact the world to the best of my abilities, and I know a large portion of that can only be accomplished if I am able to block out others' negative opinions of me. For every person who watched Maxican Food every week without fail, there was another person who couldn't stand that I was posting a video of myself performing a good deed for the whole world to see. How hypocritical of me, having the audacity to help someone just so I could reap the praise of my peers for being such a good person. I get it. I know that opinion of me exists, and quite frankly I can't do anything about it. What I can do is trust the process; putting myself in the best position to create the largest positive impact on my community, even if certain individuals disagree with me entirely.

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There is an underlying theme attached to the three lessons I stated above: I still haven't accomplished any of them. It has to be the most frustrating, infuriating idea in the world; this idea that the three lessons I learned from this project are presenting me with more questions than answers. How exactly do I make sure I'm helping others in a way that generates the greatest positive impact? I don't. How am I supposed to learn for certain when to challenge myself and when to rest? I don't. But when will I definitely know when to care what others think of me? I won't. The beauty of these lessons is that experiencing the process is more fulfilling than finding the answer to it all. The answers to these questions are hidden deep within the journey of life, and the only way to get closer to understanding them is to dive in head first. For the last six months, Maxican Food was my way of diving in head first. I can't wait to see what comes next.