Crossroads Middle School

How I Paid it Forward
By, Robert

In my reading class, we read an excerpt of the book Pay It Forward. We were told to do favors that we wouldn’t do regularly for two people and asked them to pay it forward, following the concept in the book.

I helped “Tom”, an autistic kid on my bowling team. Autism is a disease that a person is born with in his or her brain that disables his/her way of communicating properly. I never really talked with him, and neither did anyone else. I decided to stay and talk to him all day. He was really quite interesting, a typical kid; definitely not what I predicted. It turned out that he likes the same things I do, such as the same music preferences, games, and foods.
He is like everyone else in many ways! I was really surprised, because usually he would keep to himself and is just alone all day. I’m sure he enjoyed the experience much more than I did, ameliorating (diminishing) his thoughts of loneliness. So my first “pay it forward” job worked. Later, I explained the concept of “Pay it Forward” to his dad who could tell “Tom” what it meant.

The second person I paid it forward to was my science teacher, “Mrs. Bob.” Her son, “Mervin”, has a dangerous infection, so she has to stay in the hospital with him. “Mervin” has an older brother that misses his mother and his little brother while they’re in the hospital. I was part of a group of kids that collected money for a fund so that “Mrs. Bob” could stay at the hospital and pay for food and other needs. I collected money from my neighborhood. Even though some don’t know “Mervin”, they all helped by contributing something; I ended with about $50. The entire group’s collection totaled about $150. A few members of our group were able to present the money to “Mrs. Bob”. Now, the whole school is participating in a fundraiser for “Mervin’s” medical bills which are rising incredibly high. “Mrs. Bob” requests everyone’s prayers to help her family and appreciated our help.

The lesson I learned from helping “Tom” was that even though he is different because he trouble communicating, he still has average thoughts and preferences. I learned from “Mervin” and “Mrs. Bob” that helping other people makes you feel better and that everybody can make a contribution to help someone out that is in need. I would encourage everyone to do some things, however small, to help a person or make it easier for them to live their lives. If everyone were to cooperate in “Pay it Forward”, we’d live in a euphoric (exceptionally happy) world!