What does it Mean to Pay it Forward?
The “pay it forward” movement is not a new concept. According to Wikipedia, it dates all the way back to 317 BC where it was used as a key plot concept for a play in ancient Athens. There are small documented events of the “pay it forward” notion throughout history; however, it became a widely popular concept after the 2000 movie of the same name, which was based on the novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde.
The simplest way to define “pay it forward” is that when someone does something for you, instead of paying that person back directly, you pass it on to another person instead. One of the easiest examples of this is buying a coffee for the person in line behind you at the coffee shop and then they buy a coffee for the person behind them and so on.
What is the point of all this? Why do so many people live their lives according to the “pay it forward” principle? It has been proven that acts of kindness build exponentially in a community and because people believe that one good deed deserves another. “Paying it forward” can make the world a better place.
Paying it forward can even help in your professional life. By volunteering to help a manager or a supervisor from another department with a project, you might stay in the back of their mind when an opportunity for a promotion comes up. Even as you build your professional network, people who you’ve paid it forward to will certainly hold you in a higher light than individuals they’ve never met or even have had bad experiences with. So paying it forward shouldn’t just be reserved for your personal life but your professional life as well.
I introduced this concept to my first English class 4 years ago and I was totally amazed at how they took hold of it and every Wednesday they had to come to class and tell what they had done..the stories would astound you and make you cry....
Each new set of students I have I started the pay it forward and so it was with this new class that started just 10 days ago....
I have 5 students registered and one seems to have already dropped out and the first class I explained about pay it forward they had never heard about it but I explained how it started and what I wanted them to do...
So last night was the first time they came to class... came to the front and told what they had done.....
Jorge my 17 year old student who has very good command of the English language and is just a really great young man...told of going to school yesterday on the very crowded bus at one point a lady got on the bus carrying a baby and there was no where for her to sit....so he got up and offered his seat to the lady who accepted and thanked him.....he said he felt very good inside for doing this.
I told him that was the perfect example of paying it forward and he fully understood how the lady felt good but he had good feelings also.
Next up was Belen whose husband owns a cattle ranch just outside of town....her story was that yesterday she was at one of the small stalls in the market that serves meals and as she was sitting there with her friend a blind man came and ordered a drink..she got up went to the man and told him she wanted to pay for his drink and she did.....the man told her that no one had ever done that before for him and he was really happy... I asked how she felt about it and she said it made her feel good all day!!!
Finally was Maricris who cooks and sells meals out of her home.....yesterday she was outside her home at 7 am in the morning when she saw a woman going through the trash on the corner of the street...she went to the woman and asked if she was hungry and she said she was and Maricris invited her into her home and cooked her breakfast....the woman looked cold so Maricris got a sweater from her closet and gave it to the woman who asked why are you doing this for me and she told her because I want to make someone else happy!!!
So what do you think did they grasp the concept of paying it forward?????
I cannot wait in the weeks to come to see what these beautiful people do to make small changes in this community.
I am humbled!!!
Yashi Kochi!!!
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