This week’s challenge took place internationally in the beautiful country of Northern Ireland. On Friday, February 12, 2020, I hopped on a plane and arrived on Saturday morning to what has to be the greenest place on earth. It was a breath of fresh air from the grey atmosphere that has loomed over Toronto since late November.
Throughout the week as I drove around the narrow, bendy roads of Northern Ireland I had a chance to escape my stress and take a much-needed breather from the overwhelming pace of life as a two-job holding, but still broke student. Being away from everything was enough to make me happy, so I was excited to complete this week’s challenge and share my joy with others. My goal for the week was to complete three pay-it-forward challenges.
To begin I had to figure out what exactly it meant to “pay it forward.” When I created my project proposal, I thought to pay it forward just meant buying something for the person behind you and starting a chain reaction. This does count as a pay it forward movement, but after some research, I realized there are many other things that count as paying it forward. Basically, any unexpected, unplanned kind act you do for someone else is paying it forward. Even some of the things I have done in previous weeks count as paying it forward. For example, complimenting a stranger or buying someone a coffee.
This made it much easier to complete this week’s challenge since paying it forward encompassed much more than I originally thought. However, I cannot take all the credit for this week as my boyfriend Philip graciously drove me around Northern Ireland to help me complete my challenges.
To start the week, we bought donuts from Tim Hortons and brought them to his parents during their shift at work. Yes, they have Tim Hortons in Northern Ireland! It just opened and it is actually much nicer than many of our Canadian Tim Hortons locations. We chose it because it was new and Canadian, so it seemed the most appropriate café choice. Also, I chose to start by doing something nice for his parents since they kindly let me stay at their house. They run their own business, so when it’s busy it can be difficult to catch a moment eat. We dropped them off a small snack to give them a quick breather during the middle of the day.
Next, we drove Philip’s grandmother to the retirement home his grandfather is in. His grandfather has been quite sick for the last few months so he is not able to live at home and Philip’s grandmother can’t drive. She goes to visit him every day but didn’t have a ride one afternoon. Philip and I cancelled our plans to go on a tour of the North coast and dropped her off so that she could still spend time with him.
My final challenge I completed at the airport. I was really nervous about this one because I wasn’t sure how people would receive it. I chickened out quite a few times in the process, but eventually mustered the courage to leave money to pay for the person behind me. I had the opportunity to do it throughout the week, but I wanted to do it at the airport. I think airports are one of the most stressful places to be in. It’s a very intense environment and there are so many ways something could go wrong. Plus, people spend their whole day sitting around waiting so everyone is tired and frustrated, including me. I decided airports need a little more joy, so for my final pay it forward challenge I bought a coffee and paid for it with a larger bill to cover some of the people’s orders who were waiting in line behind me. I didn’t stay to see how they received my gesture, but I hope it made someone’s day a little less frustrating.
Overall, I had a really enjoyable reading week. I am coming home feeling refreshed and thankful that I had time to spend outside of work. Escaping my very busy schedule was a motivation booster and a reminder to take a step back and realize not everything has to be as intense as I make it out to be in my head. This week’s challenges only contributed to inspiring me, so I was very thankful that this was the one project I did not take a break from over reading week.
The Kindness Countdown 