I don’t know how many of you have seen this movie. If I’m not mistaken it is called “Pay it forward”, I haven’t seen it either, a friend told me about it. It seems it is a movie where a group of school children are given a project where they were expected to perform a substantial good deed. Everybody goes about trying to find their one good deed to do, while one young boy sets out with a vision, he decides that he would do some good deed (however small) to 3 people and tell them they need not pay him back but instead carry forward that good deed to 3 others and tell them the same thing ‘don’t repay me, instead pay it forward to 3 others…”, he believed that those 3 would continue the cycle. He starts off by picking up a street kid, giving him a bath in his own house and letting him work in his garage. The boy in turn wants to repay him but his vision drives him to say “Pay it forward to 3 others!” He adds this one good deed for his school project. He does not somehow expect that his dream of that one good deed being paid forward would work, thus he lives on unassuming. But in the meanwhile the spark that he ignited in the form of a single good deed takes a remarkable momentum, and it began to be called as the “Pay it forward” movement. It spreads far and wide throughout the small boy’s city, state and nation little knowing it’s ignition point. A reporter pursues the mission of tracing the origin of this movement and after much search finally reaches that one boy who started with that one good deed and didn’t want to be repaid but instead asked the benefactor to pay it forward to 3 others. He meets the boy in a hospital. I’m not too sure of how the movie ends, but the concept inspired me “Pay it forward!”.
As a National EXCO who is about to finish her term, I find a lot of meaning in this story and it gives me a very strong and relevant message, how ‘I’, a small, insignificant, lonely, powerless, apparently unnoticed young girl joined the Movement, began to do small deeds through YCS/YSM, became a part of the Diocesan Team, attended the 8th Asian Session and council in 2000, became a part of the Regional Team and went on to be the National EXCO in 2001, participated in the SAS - Bangladesh, experienced the WYD in 2002, grew to be a leader, worked as coordinator in Bangalore and wrote in the SEARCH continuously. I always thought all these were insignificant until during one of our programmes, I heard a young school boy quoting lines from my poetry that I wrote long back and said he got his inspiration from that poem. It really made me realise how such a ‘not so deliberate’ sharing made a difference.
5 years before when I joined the movement, in a solitary corner of Worker’s Center in Bangalore, I got my silver line (a good deed), which today has helped me reach out to so many youngsters and remember certain values I shared with them and have carried it forward to others. Now at the end of my term I sincerely with a very grateful heart remember all those people who inspired me by their good deeds, my parents and friends whom I owe gratitude for chiseling a rock that was into the idol that I am today.
I leave with a heart that is heavy not with pain or sorrow but gratitude and awakening. I may not be able to repay your good deeds but I promise I will “Pay it forward”, I will carry on the spirit, I might not be able to keep in constant touch with all of you, but the spirit that you have collectively imbibed in me – I will “Pay it forward”.
Pray for me and keep in touch with me. This will make a big difference. Thank you YCS/YSM for everything –
– Saranya Balaji (A YCS/YSMer for ever)