I often read these stories of people paying it forward and it always warms my heart. The media so often makes a big deal of BAD news that the good news is forgotten about. But there IS always good news. The majority of people out there are helpful, have good manners, are honest, WANT to help.
Personally, I feel we tend to forget that. I certainly do. With so much media concentrating on what this celebrity does, who was murdered yesterday, who was kidnapped, politics, war, religion, etc. etc. We’ve begun to judge each other by sight. As funny (and horrifying) as websites like People of Walmart are, it is aiding our immediate visual judgement. And yes, I have gone to that website and shoot, I have taken a couple judgmental pictures myself. Rather than assuming the best of people, we have become jaded.
For the last 8 months or so, I’ve been concentrating on changing that. I am definitely NOT perfect at it. I am trying to just accept people as they are. I slip up, but in general I am trying to not assume something is a certain way just because of what I SEE on the surface. There is always a story behind the way something looks, right?
I originally started this blog when I was in a bad place financially. I wrote about that a couple years ago when explaining why I coupon. Over the last 2 years I have built my blog and business up and now I try to give back whenever I can. I would say once a month or so I pay for the person behind me at the Starbucks drive-thru. Just for the gratification of that little gesture making someone’s day. It had never happened to me in return, but I figured someday, when I needed it, it would come back around.
Today was that day.
This morning I took my daughter to her first day of 1st grade. My son doesn’t start Kindergarten until Thursday so I figured I would take advantage of the time by ourselves and take him to lunch.
We get in the car and guess what? My air conditioner stopped working. I live in Albuquerque, NM so this isn’t something I need right now. It’s a DESERT.
We head to Which Wich, a sandwich shop that makes my son’s favorite “Cheese Pizzawich”.
For those of you that are familiar with Which Wich, we fill in our paper bags with our order and head up to the register. I hand the cashier our order and look in my wallet. Yesterday I had gone to an ATM and put my card in the back pocket of my shorts. It never made it back to my wallet.
This was just not my day!??! I told the cashier I was going to have to cancel the order as I didn’t have my card with me.
Well the gentleman behind me in line jumped in and said “No way! I will get it for you.” I probably turned BRIGHT red as I easily do, and I asked about 10 times if he was sure? Of course said thank you at least as many times…
Yes, that gesture and act of kindness made my day. And definitely proved that when you pay it forward, it DOES come back around.
So don’t forget, when you can, pay it forward!
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