Crossroads Middle School, Pennsylvania

~Emily’s Story~

In my reading class we were assigned to Pay It Forward (PIF) to three people in our family, school or community. After reading the excerpt from the book we had to come up with brainstorms of things to do. It was difficult for me at first, because I had never PIFed before, but after I started coming up with a few things to do, a lot of other ones started coming to me. The ideas that I decided to carry through were to vacuum my dad’s car, make my brother’s bed for a week, and clean the bathroom for my mom. I soon began to realize that helping people might actually be fun.

The first idea I carried through was to help my dad by vacuuming his car. I thought of it when I had to ride in my dad’s car to get to a soccer game.

“Hey dad, how’d all this dirt get in your car?”

“Oh, that’s from my baseball equipment.”

 I then asked if I could PIF to him by vacuuming his car and he agreed to let me do it. So then on a Saturday morning, I got out the vacuum and spent twenty minutes vacuuming his car. Helping my dad made me realize helping someone can be fun. But my next idea probably wasn’t going to be as fun as the first.

I got my second idea when my brother started to complain about not being able to make his bed, because he was on the bottom bunk and would hit his head on my other brother’s bed. I know that my brother was grateful I made his bed because he said thank you about a million times.

 Dirt, more dirt and even more dirt. Cleaning the bathroom wasn’t that clean in itself, but it sure was fun. I got out all the cleaning supplies and spent my day cleaning the bathroom for my mom. I think that my mom will be very thankful that she will not have to clean the bathroom, because it is hard for her to bend down and clean the floor in such a small cramped space.

After I was finished helping my mom, I was feeling very proud because I had finished all three PIF ideas. I never thought that I would be able to finish them, but I did. When I was vacuuming my Dad’s car, making my brother’s bed, and cleaning the bathroom, I was having an excellent time. Being involved with PIF has made me realize how much fun it can be to help people.