Individuals Paying It Forward

My name is Alysha, and I am fourteen years old and attend Kelloggsville High School in Wyoming, Michigan. This isn't really a story about being touched by the Movement, I apologize, but more like an ode to the idea. This is the first time I visited this site and I deeply want to get involved. I first heard of the idea Paying Forward in church, and it inspired my mother to buy the book. I, like many others, never heard of the idea before so I paid no mind to it.

A few weeks ago, however, we were assigned a book report in Language Arts class. I chosen Pay it Forward as my book to expand my reading (at the time I was highly infatuated with Harry Potter). I began to read it and it touched my heart. I was so involved with it that I waited and looked everywhere for I sign of the Movement, just so I could be part of it. My waiting was in vein, however, because when I came to your website hoping to help out, I was bestowed upon with a shocking realization.

You see, I was never a very observative person. In my whole time reading the book, and the weeks after pondering on it, I was led to believe that it was a true story. That it really happened ... and this thought made me cry even harder when Trevor died. I believed that there was a Trevor McKinney, and his simple idea became worldwide. I also believed in Rueben St. Clair and Arlene, with their little girl, living happily yet haunted by the memory of their belated son. I had a hope that one person could make a difference, and because of my incompetence that hope is gone.

...But not completely. I still want to get involved. I do want to make a difference. I know now that Paying Forward and it's many faces are fiction, but the idea Catherine has created is brilliant. I want to be a part of it. I will try to do what I can for being a minor.

Thank you, Catherine. Like many others, you have lifted my life.

God Bless, Alysha Lach