Kayla Steen's Pay It Forward

Part 1

Pay It Forward to me was a very emotional and inspirational movie that you only find once in a while. After we had finished watching it, I had to admit that  even I was crying. I don’t cry easy. When I think about it, I would like to meet the person that came up with pay it forward in the first place. I don’t know if it had in fact been a child, but if it had, I would have liked to meet him/her, all the same. What affected me the most would be the ending, again. It’s just that he died, and didn’t even do anything wrong. It was so sad, but to see all those people go and place flowers and to gather and acknowledge him, it was just terribly  sad and beautiful. I wish that a child could change the world. It would show that if children can  do it, why can’t you, too? Why can’t you change the world? Because you can’t? because it’s too big? No, it’s because you haven’t tried, and, I must admit, that I haven’t tried either.  Because I want to, but don’t want to at the same time. I want to stay in my comfort zone.  Where I feel safe. I don’t want to go out into the Big Bad World, because I’m comfortable  now right here. I’m afraid that the world will eat me if I leave my family and the people  I know, never to return and I don’t want to leave my comfort zone, even if I want to change the world. I guess that my will and wish to change it is too vague for the world to acknowledge. And I can admit that.

Part 2

What I did for my Pay It Forward took me a long time to figure out. Well, not really a long time, considering it had probably been 2 days, but it seemed so much longer to me.
Thereason that I couldn't come up with anything is because I'm not a very good thinker, but I completely make that up in wording... and actually reading, unlike some people I know. *cough cough* … *nudge nudge*(silence)
I'm not very good with ideas. Where was I, again? Oh, yes. I wouldn't have known  a good idea if it hit me in the arse. forget writers' block. “Sorry, Good Idea, It  just wouldn’t work out for us in a long-term relationship. I love your characters and themes but your plot is so hard to get along with. You’re just not my type. I need my space.” Yeah. Like that’s going to happen. So, contemplating this at home in my room, I was leaning back on my chair with my feet on the desk brainstorming, with no apparent luck, and my thoughts drifted to my neighbor, who lives not two doors down from our humble family of three (well, actually she does, but you don't know that yet). Mrs. Kreis, the women I was telling you about, is an elderly lady at the ripe old age of **. . . ( aha! not like I would tell you, nice try though…don’t worry, rammy is somuch older. As in millions of years older), and I was thinking about when our last encounter had been. If I remembered correct, I was pretty sure that I had not gone to her house in a week,and I was a little bit worried about how she was doing, if she needed help with anything, and so on. And that's when it hit me. Literally. (..I had fallen out of my chair from leaning back toomuch, and hit my head on hard wood. not a pleasant feeling, I remind you). But, nonetheless, Istill had it. I would have jumped 15 feet in the air (if i could, of course, but, unfortunately I can't) and got a piece of paper out of my binder that I scribbled like mad on while smiling triumphantly, thoroughly pleased with myself. I had decided I would make it my duty to make a good contribution to pay it forward, and I had found the perfect subject: Mrs. Kreis.When I thought of doing Mrs. kreis as the person I would help, I knew I had picked the right decision and person. Even whenI had visited her before, she always seemed bustling with life and purpose, fixing the garden, cleaning out the garage. But I always did wonder if, sometimes, by and chance, she ever got lonely? Well, that wouldn't do, now would it? No, it definitely would not.
So,I went to visit my old friend,  because the day before I had decided that I would tell her about my proposition and all about Pay It Forward.Over tea, that is. Everybody loves tea cookies.
When I had finished telling her, I was  feeling very excited at the prospectof doing the project. Inside, I was actually very nervous, because I really wanted to so it, but what if she refused?
But, in the end, she agreed anyway though, and I was very happy that I had made her so happy. For a second I though I might have seen tears, but I can’t be sure. (I speak no lies.)
What exactly did she agree to, you ask? Well, the pay it forward act of kindness I’m going to do, (wait for it) … is help my old, next door neighbor to shovel her walk, go carry her groceries when she goes out shopping, keep her company when she’s alone, and listen to her about things from a long time ago that she might want  to talk about, to help her bake all the pastries that she knows I love and any other odd jobs she has around her house.
You see, it’s not that she doesn’t have family, she does, it’s just that she alone. She has children and grandchildren, and had a husband, but they are all in other places now. Her sons and daughters have all left home and grown up, they do visit with their children to greet and see grandma Freita, but they all live in different places and provinces. And, sadly, only last year Mrs. Kreis had lost her husband to Colon Cancer. I remember that he used to walk up  and down the back lane by our house, and my dadwould talk to him and ask him how things were doing.
The time when I had done part of my act of kindness was when I, this night, had gone to Mrs.  Kreis’s house to talk to her about when she was a child and how her family had survived through WW2. It was very emotional and I got to learn new things and I am grateful to her for what she has confided in me.

Part 3

My act of kindness went very well, and I hope to help more in the near future as well. It was all very interesting, but an insightful encounter and one that I hope to come by again soon. When I had gone through my act of kindness for the day, I felt very happy, but also solemn and I think it was because of the things she had told me about her childhood.  She told me all these things, and I felt a warm tingly feeling in my chest because she already trusted me, and it feels good to be trusted in. I think the reason I did not ask her to pay it forward, is because I personally think that the paying it forward should be started by young people. Mrs. kreis was young, she had a happy life with no regrets, and I think she has already in her life, somewhere, already paid it forward. So, no, I don’t want to ask her to pay it forward, because I’m sure that somewhere she has already done so.

Part 4

I think the idea of “Pay It Forward” is so important because young people need to give back to the community the kindness that somebody else had shown them, from picking up the stuff you dropt, to holding the door foryou because of common courtesy, or anything at all. I personally don’t know if my act of kindness has done anything at all but I know that ,while it may not affect the whole world, it has helped a person who lives on that earth, and it has helped me, too.