Pay It Forward

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about giving to others. Paying it forward. All the kind thoughts and actions brought upon me, I want to pass on to someone else. ‘But how?’ I keep wondering. How?

Here’s how this idea first became planted into my head. Freshman year in Honors English 9, my friend Cierra had shared something about the movie Pay It Forward during a discussion. At the end of class she wrote the title of the movie in my notebook and told me to watch it. I, though never seen the movie, kept this phrase ‘pay it forward’ in my head for a very long time. To this very day, about 18 months since the encounter.

Still, I hadn’t watched this film. The past few weeks, since school let off, I had this constant thought of pay it forward. Pay it forward. Very simple, yet I had no idea what to do or how to start. Then, just tonight, I watched the trailer for the movie. I am very intrigued to say the least. I will definitely be persuading my father to buy this film for my family to watch.

The simple idea of one person doing or giving to three people and then those three people giving to three people themselves and so on is inspirational, life changing, world changing. It would be a never ending cycle. Brilliant. It really is.

Right after watching the movie trailer, I clicked on another video (link below). This one was an inspiring video to the song ‘One Day’ by Matisyahu. Watching the short video, my thoughts on pay it forward were once again persuading me to do something kind, meaningful, even if only to one person. Yet again, I had the same thoughts while watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians. When Scott visited a woman with cancer for her bucket list, I was honestly really touched. I personally was never a fan of Scott on the show, but now have more respect for him as a person for what he did for the woman.

All in all, I really feel touched by what I saw these past few days. I can’t help but want to help people, too. Therefore, I am going to try and ‘pay it forward’ or ‘give back’ once a day. I know this doesn’t really seem like much, but even the little things matter. I hope that you will do the same. Take the time to do something helpful for someone once a day. Someone who doesn’t expect it, but needs it. Yes, that’s my game plan from now on. :)

Inspiring 'One Day' Matisyahu Video