In my youth group at St. Patrick's Parish, we discussed the importance of "paying it forward." We heard a story about a woman at a Starbucks drive through who paid for the gentleman behind her, and started a chain reaction. There is a whole organization out there dedicated to "paying it forward" (www.payitforwardfoundation.org). The whole idea is that if someone does something nice for you or helps you out in a little way, you should do the same for three more people, and tell them, once you have paid it forward, to pay it forward to three other people. The tree of giving would just keep growing. There's also a movie called "pay it forward" with Kevin Spacey. It's actually pretty good. I'd reccomend it.
Melissa and I decided to test it out. We drove to the starbucks drive through and ordered our drinks, doing so slowly enough so that someone would end up behind us. Eventually they a did. An older couple drove up behind us, adn we could see through our rear view mirror that they were scraping around their car and looking through their pockets for some change to get some coffee. "Perfect," Melissa said. I agreed. I was hesitant to telling the cashier at the window "Can i please pay for the people behind me?" worried about what her reaction would be like, but said so anyways. Melissa and i got two coffee frappacinos with whipped cream, totalling to $5.85. The bill for the people behind me was about $8.00. I paid for their drinks and Melissa and I drove off, driving slowly enough to see their reaction. We looked in the mirror and noticed that they looked semi confused. Oh well. At least we tried.
The funniest part of that situation had to be the conversation melissa and i had afterwards. We complained "How hard can it be to understand that someone paid for their drinks out of kindness?" It was comopletely confusing to us and we ourselves didnt know how to react. We were laughing hysterically at the thought of being the cashier and having to explain to the customers that they didnt have to pay, someone did for them.
I had been trying to "pay it forward" since our youth group meeting three weeks ago, to no avail. I went to starbucks often, and still do (completely obsessed with it), and everytime i went no one ended up in the drive through behind me. Oh well.
Better luck next time i guess. Hopefully the next time we decide to pay it forward to someone else, their reaction will be a bit more excited. It's not that we expected anything in return we simply wanted to see a smile on their face. And next time, maybe they'll pay it forward to someone else deserving.
Maybe one small good deed will set a chain reaction and make that bit of a difference in today's world. It's at least worth a try.
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so i totally think those people were pretty rude. i mean, if i saved nine dollars because some kids bought my drink i would be pretty grateful. but not that old hag. whatev. :) it was super fun anyways. we should go somewhere like centerfolds and pay for someones lap dance! ...is that paying it forward?
ReplyDeleteI don'tthink the people were rude and I don't think you should be upset about it. That was a cool thing you did, but I think I would be confused too, if someone paid for me. I think we are trained to not trust people in our society and to be skeptical of things that seem too good to be true. Don't let it stop you, though, from paying it forward. Maybe someday, down the line, those people will do the same.
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