Alright after you’re done reading you may say “but Asante this is kind of a reach. This essay doesn’t really answer the prompt”. To that I say, shut up it’s my blog. If you find grammar errors, please point them out because this essay hasn't been proofread at all. I literally sat down, typed it all out in google docs, and copied it into this text box. Enjoy:
“‘Pay it forward’ is an expression for describing the beneficiary of a good deed repaying it to others instead of to the original benefactor”.
Last Saturday, I had just finished waxing my car and I need something to eat before going to take prom pictures. I decided I needed a big meal because I knew the food at prom would be, as the kids say, “suspect”. So I called Buffalo Wild Wings in Savoy. My dad said he wanted the quesadilla (yes b-dubs has a quesadilla). I got the usual, 12 boneless wings -- half honey barbecue half carribean jerk -- fries, and celery. My dad gave me some money and I was on my way to pick up the food.
Sometimes I have completely random thoughts. I can be sitting around in class and I’ll randomly start thinking about the last time I ate cake. I can be sitting at home doing homework and I’ll ask myself, “is the s silent or is the c silent in the word “scent”. Back to the story though. → About halfway through my ride, I thought about how blessed I am. I’m blessed with hardworking parents who rose above their original circumstances. I’m blessed to have two parents who continue to work hard everyday so that I don’t have to struggle through some of the things that they went through as children. I’m blessed because having those kinds of parents isn’t always the case. Parents that can just give their kid $40 to drive their personal car to pick up a good meal from a nice restaurant.
All these lovey-dovey thoughts almost caused to me to miss my turn into the parking lot of Buffalo Wild Wings, which happens to be next to a Schnucks store. As I was backing into a spot, I noticed an older lady walking across the street with bags of groceries. I immediately thought of my grandmother who lives alone in Biloxi, Mississippi. If she was walking alone with groceries, I would want an able-bodied (handsome) young man to at least offer to help her. So I hopped out of the car, ran up to her and asked in a soft voice, “do you need help with those bags ma’am?”. Now of course, I’m not the biggest/scariest person alive, but to a 5’1” old white lady, I look like the Hulk. I made sure to keep my distance until she accepted my offer. “My car is parked right over there”, I said as I pointed over to the car. She looked up at me and, actually to my surprise, she said, “Well it’s a nice day outside outside and I like to get my exercise. I’m not going very far, but these bags can get heavy after a while, so I’ll take you up on your offer”.
As we rode down the street to “The Windsor of Savoy”, I was able to learn a couple things about this lady. She just celebrated her 91st birthday. She had a son who taught at Urbana High School for 35 years. She gets her hair done at BoRics hair care. I was able to bond with this woman who I’d never met and I had absolutely nothing in common with. After I dropped her off, I realized that I had subconsciously paid it forward. This was a woman with no other means of transportation available but her two feet. I had a whole car! So, to reach back to Wikipedia’s definition, I was the beneficiary of the good deeds of my parents. Instead of hogging my resources, I repaid it to another person. I made my way back home to shower and get ready for prom. Happy ending. Then I had another random thought; My wings and my dad’s quesadilla are still sitting at B-dubs getting cold.
You're a great story teller. You have some great details and the narrative flows well. I like the initial disconnect between your introductory idea and the beginning of the story because it came full-circle at the end. The only part I got actually confused at was the random thought tangent. I understand your intentions, but I'd consider moving the detail about you driving to the restaurant to the beginning of that paragraph so the reader has some context.
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