Pay It Forward

Chris Chandler reflects on the beginnings of “the movement that changed the world” (7). He introduces himself as the investigative reporter who made known the disfigured teacher and the twelve-year-old boy who “didn’t seem all that remarkable on the outside, but who could see past his teacher’s face” (7).

To explain this now global phenomenon, Chandler tells a more recent story of his car dying in the middle of a busy intersection, and how a stranger helped him push it off to the side of the road. The stranger then gave him his own car, a new silver Acura, telling Chandler:“‘A great deal of generosity has come into my life lately…I can well afford something new, so why not give as good as I’ve received’” (8). Chandler explains that these instances of generosity have become commonplace.

Trevor’s extra-credit assignment changed Chandler, who realized its importance too late. He wrote books trying to figure out what made Trevor different from other people, but even Rueben didn’t have the answers: “People gradually stopped needing to know why” (10), and Chandler gave up being a reporter.