Crossroads Middle School, Pennsylvania

My Experiences of Paying It Forward
By Kathleen

I was helping out three people. It was just three small favors, they weren’t huge favors, but they were important to the people I helped.

I did all of these favors because of a novel, also turned into a movie, Pay It Forward (PIF). For a Language Arts project, we had to help out three people and instead of us getting something out of it in return, they had to help three more people, and pay it forward.

In my original plan, I was supposed to baby sit for someone, but my plans kept falling through. I was so frustrated that I had nothing to do for my first idea. I thought I was going to be in so much trouble with my teacher. Actually, she was happy that I decided I needed to find another idea and saw that it wasn’t going to work. I had no idea what I was going to do for a pay it forward until my sister suggested that I help her out and that can be my PIF.

My sister used to drive to school every day. She’s a good driver, but a car was obstructing her view so she pulled out but a car was coming and hit her. My sister’s okay, but when her air bag exploded, it gave her chemical burns on her right arm and of course she has a few cuts and scrapes. She came home from the emergency room with her arm in a bandage and the doctors told her she needed to change the bandage every day. My sister is right handed so she needed someone else to change it for her. I offered to, even if it weren’t for a PIF. If she weren’t in pain, it would’ve been sort of funny that she needed help to put on her jacket and sweatshirts! So I helped her out and she appreciated it!

Far a second favor I talked to my grandma. She doesn’t get to do very much anymore, so I thought it would mean a lot to talk to her and spend some time with her. When my uncle’s step granddaughter went down to their house, I went down there too. My grandma doesn’t like keeping track of her or her sister when they come down so I went down to help keep an eye on them and spend time with them, so my grandma wouldn’t have to.

My plans also took an unseen turn for this PIF, I was planning on talking to children with medical problems. I realized how many children there are out there that have medical problems that are stopping them from having a regular childhood. There was one problem with that, we couldn’t figure out how to talk to them. I’m sure people would really enjoy that, but maybe I could do that sometime in the future.

My mom wanted to make our bathroom look cleaner and better so she decided to paint it. My mom really wanted to finish painting so that the walls would be dry and we can have our bathroom back, so I helped her paint. Although I usually do enjoy painting, there were other things I could’ve been doing, but I did make a small sacrifice to help my mom. I still have some paint on my arms and hands, but for the most part it was fun!

I know I changed my plans throughout the entire project, but I wasn’t happy about changing all of my plans. This project was one of the more difficult ones that I had to I do, I’m not so good with outside of school projects. This project was very tough and I thought it was going horrible, but everything turned out okay in the end!

I doubt that the people I have chosen will carry through with paying it forward. When my sister offered that I could help her for my PIF, I don’t think that she will carry through, but hopefully, with the right encouragement, she will! To encourage her and others, I will give them ideas about what they can do to help.

The type of person I can see carrying through with PIF is a sort of person who knows a lot o f people and has some spare time to help. The majority of the people I helped don’t have much free time on their hands.

I didn’t do anything world-changing, just some nice favors that changed the day for someone, the smallest of things can have the largest affect!

“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” -Princess Diana