Kindness vs. Niceness

While I have described many people in my life as "nice," I have rarely described anyone as "kind". Scratch that, never. The only person I can think of who is kind right now is my friend Mara. (I sort of idolize her, for she is such a sweet, generous, kind, funny, energetic and all-around good person though not nice all the time). I have come to the conclusion that nice and kind are different, though many of you already know that. I would much rather be kind than nice, in my personal opinion. I prefer people that are kinder rather than nicer.

I was thinking this over whilst playing Animal Crossing DS. Yes, I know it is odd, but I was. I don't know how it came to mind, but it did.

You know the nice people. They're always polite to everyone. If you're like me, you don't really befriend them, but you get along. They can be (and often are) somewhat bland in character, never getting to know you. They're so polite to everyone. You don't know if they really like you and you don't know what they really think of anything. They're so concerned with being as inoffensive as possible. While that is not neccessarily a bad thing, it can be a problem when you're trying to get to know a nice person if you're as straightforward as me.

The dictionary defines nice as "Pleasing and agreeable in nature, exhibiting courtesy and politeness, and of good character and reputation."

I define nice as polite and agreeable. Nice people don't argue. Nice people try not to make anyone feel bad about anything. Nice people are utterly weak-willed and not fun to debate with.

The kind people are harder to find. Nice people may be kind as well, but you don't know that until you get to know them. People like me often don't try and befriend them too heavily. The kindest people may seem to be tough and mean on the outside. However, they are often the kindest, are often giving and kind. This one girl I'm friends with is like that. People think she's all rude, loud, and obnoxous. However, she is quite poor (to put it frankly) and knew she wouldn't be able to buy me anything for my birthday so she made me a little cup thing in her Ceramics class. It's quite lovely and I put small things in there. She's a truly kindhearted soul, but nobody gives her credit. That is worse than being stuck under the guise of "nice" and people only seeing you as that.

The dictionary defines kind as of a friendly, generous, or warm-hearted nature, showing sympathy or understanding, charitable, humane, considerate, forbearing, tolerant, generous and liberal.

I define kind as giving and sincere, thoughtful. They give without thinking about how it will effect them and truly care about their loved ones.

As it stands, I attract more kind people than nice people. My friends may not seem nice, but they are truly the kindest people you could ever meet. Most of them, anyway. I would much rather be considered kind by a close few than nice by the majority, because the close few know I like them for sure. They know where they stand when it comes to our friendship and know what I think of them. If I'm nice to everyone, nobody knows if I really like them or if that's what I really think. As it stands, I am neither kind nor nice. I'm opinionated and stubborn, definitely eccentric and out of the ordinary. I'm rude, blunt, callous...But in a way, all of my rudeness and straightforwardness is beneficial. Because at least people know if I like them or not. I'd rather tell someone outright that I don't like them despite if they travel in my circle of friends than be outwardly nice to them and all of that. I would be polite to them if we're stuck in the same social situations because it's the rudest thing ever to be rude to a person your friend is friends with even if you don't like them, but I won't mince words on whether I like them or not. My friends still like me anyway, for they know that I like them without a doubt.

And that is my uber-long post for today.