Jaden Hayes first lost his dad when he was four and then last month his mom died unexpectedly in her sleep.

“I tried and I tried to get her awake—I couldn’t,” said Jaden.

Jaden is understandably heartbroken. But there’s another side to his sadness. When he first made public a few weeks ago he told his aunt, and now guardian, Barbara DiCola, that he was sick of seeing everyone was sad all the time. And he had a plan to fix it. He asked his aunt Barbara to buy a lot of little toys and bring him to downtown Savannah, so he could give them away.

“I’m trying to make people smile,” said Jaden. He gave his toys to people who weren’t smiling and then turned their day around. He has gone out on four different occasions now and he is always successful, though sometimes he doesn’t get exactly the reaction he was hoping for.

It’s just so unexpected to some people that a six-year-old child would give away a toy— expecting nothing in return—except a smile. Of course he is paid beautifully in hugs and his aunt says the reactions have done wonders for Jaden, who will then feel joyful.

“But I’m still sad that my mom died,” Jaden said.

This is of course not only a fix, but the smiles he has made so far—nearly 500 at last count—Jaden has clearly found a purpose.

“I’m counting on it to be 33, 000,” said Jaden.

When asked if he thought he could make that goal, he answered, “I think I can.”

In a post on Love What Matters, Hanss Mujica, 24, explains how he surprised his family by announcing he’d be graduating from college.

Mujica says he wasn’t a hard-working student in high school, but was able to pass his classes. “ In high school, teachers are always on top of you to see if you turned in your work or if you read the assigned book,” Mujica writes on the post. But when he went to college, that wasn’t the case.

“Professors tell you the work that needs to get done and it is up to you to decide if you want to do it or not. After all you are the ones that are paying to be there. That, I believe, was my downfall as a college student. My behavior caused me to be suspended(被暂时停学)from the university.”

Mujica says that at that time, he had a 1.47 grade point average. “When my parents got the news, the looks on their faces completely broke my heart.”

Then Mujica explains how he got his schooling back on track: he went in with a different attitude, applied himself, and worked at a company to pay for school.

“Since I was suspended from the university, my federal aid was suspended as well. I was paying out of pocket and it got to the point where I had to get emergency loans(贷款) from the university. Summer 2015 came by and I could not pay back the loans so I was dropped from my fall 2015 courses. I got out another year from the university and in summer of 2016 I decided to work upstate(在州的乡野地区) to raise the money I needed.

Fortunately, with help from the university dance program and the money he earned at work, Mujica returned to school in fall 2016.

In 2018, Mujica was ready to graduate. He left his parents a letter and two tickets for graduation to surprise them with. “I spent six years in and out of the university but seeing the reactions on their faces was worth every sleepless night,”says Mujica.

One day, when my family was leaving a restaurant, I heard a man's voice from a car in the car-park. After a quick look at the car, I noticed the Washington license plate (牌照) at once, so I knew they had come from far away. The young man had his head partly out of the window and spoke to me as I moved closer, "Excuse me, my wife and I are trying to find a room for the night and every place in the area seems to be filled up. Do you have any suggestions for us where we might find a room?"

Well, that didn't surprise me. After all, it was the busy time of the year for tourism. As he spoke, I noticed that his wife was pregnant (怀孕的). I told them that they should just keep searching and wished them good luck in their search. The young husband didn't say any other words and backed out of the car-park and headed off. We also got into our car and drove home.

After a short time, I couldn't get this young couple out of my mind. Here they were, traveling in a different state, tired, the wife pregnant. It was at that moment that my wife told me we needed to go back and find that couple. We went back and looked for them. We even went as far as the mountain. I'm happy that this story had a happy ending. We found them in the end, gave them a room, and now we are close friends.