Recently I watched the movie Pay It Forward with Kevin Spacey, directed by Mimi Leder in 2000, and I really haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I have never heard of this before but the whole idea behind Pay It Forward is to do something big and completely altruistic for someone who needs help, like if someone needed help loading their groceries, or changing their tire helping them would be the big thing. In return for the big altruistic act, you’d only ask that the person would, “pay it forward,” or do something big and altruistic for someone else.
I won’t spoil the entire movie because it was really touching, but the main character, Trevor (an 11-year-old boy), had an idea and he called it, “paying it forward,” and ultimately the idea was supposed to change the world, to put ideas into action, to make a difference. I think it’s so powerful that way. I get it, and I want to do it too. I want to make a difference, big or small. I want to be the difference. I think the movie spoke to me so much because I do this all the time; be it helping someone with one of his or her every day activities or whatever someone may need. I think it’s important to see the good in everyone, even if they’re not obviously good.
It was just so awesome that by the end of the movie, one 11-year-old kid had made a difference in so many lives across three or more different states because his idea had spread so far. It restores hope in the thought that maybe one person can change the world, and if one person can’t, they can sure try. I think paying it forward would be an amazing thing to try for everyone across campus. I mean, we already do it in small forms like holding the door for someone who will hold the door for someone else, and so on, but truly helping someone in a big way, now that deserves to be paid forward.
So I would like to make a proposition to all students on ECU’s campus: pay it forward. If you see someone who needs help, or if someone needs something that you can give him or her. One person paying it forward may not be able to make that big of a difference, but if everyone pays it forward, the world could become a better place, maybe even a less selfish place. This idea can’t work with only one person, which is part of the reason it’s so powerful, the world needs everyone to participate in making it better.