I spent a very nice week with my family at Mackinaw City, recently. Settled at the “tip of the mitt” in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, the area is surrounded by birch and evergreen forests, attractions (Mill Creek, Colonial Michilimackinac, Mackinac Island, Jack Pine Lumberjack Show) and mammoth landmarks, like the Mackinac Bridge.
Being the good “fudgies” (tourists) or “trolls” (you live in the lower peninsula below the Mackinac Bridge) one morning, we loaded the family up to go into the Upper Peninsula via the Mighty Mac.
Five miles of steel rising over the Mackinac Straits is impressive to say the least. The whole time going over the bridge, I was doing my best Clark Griswold (ala Vacation movies), throwing out facts about the bridge to my contained audience. I got no response. However, my nine-year-old, who went to Mackinac Island the day before with his two aunts, threw out some zingers related to the banding of the steel cables in the bridge, all to much great interest and response.
Anyway, we make our way up and over the bridge, having to change lanes a few times back and forth due to maintenance work on the decking and sides of the bridge. As we make our descent down to the toll booth, I reach out for the three singles and five dimes I have ready for the toll. I judge the lanes and take what appears to be the shortest one. Waiting my turn in line, I look over and see that an 18-wheeler has to pay $22.50 to get over the bridge, so my $3.50 didn’t look that bad (and that’s a deal for looking far over the edge down to the Mackinac Straits and the skyline all around).
So I pull up, roll down the window and hand over my money. The tollbooth attendant waves me through and calls out, “She paid your toll”, pointing to the car in front of us. It was a black sedan of some sort with a single occupant. I’m sort of trying to figure this all out when the tollbooth attendant says again, “She paid your toll. Pull on through.” Well, I finally figure out that I don’t have to pay and merge back on to 75 North after the toll booth. The woman in the car took the first exit into downtown Saint Ignace, while we continued on to Highway 2 that hugs the Lake Michigan shoreline and miles of open beaches.
My sis-in-law, on leave from Fort Hood, Texas (US Army Captain) simply said, “Pay it forward,” in reference to the 2000 movie with Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment and Helen Hunt about doing random nice acts for people.
We went on our way, but on the way back down across the bridge, we did the same thing: paid $7 for our pass and the car behind us. Simply we wanted to make sure that we were able to “pay it forward” to someone else.
Now where this all ties in to my theme of gaining employment and/or helping others who are unemployed is the phrase “Pay it forward.”
Think about someone you know that may need help with a resume, cover letter or making a contact in the industry in which they are looking for work. What can you do to “pay it forward” in helping someone out?
We all got our start in our jobs with the help of someone. That someone went out of his or her way to make sure you talked to the right person in getting employment.
Who can you reach out to to “pay it forward” in getting someone you know in touch with the right person, idea, website or concept?
Now let’s go out there and do something good!
Great story on paying it forward…and a great place to do it as well.
We “Pay it forward” every time we cross the Mackinac Bridge. It is an easy way for us to do a random act of kindness for someone whom we do not even know.
We did have someone follow us one time and they said thank you. Other times, we never see the people or how they react.
One of these days, we may even be in the situation where the attendant says “The car in front of you paid.”
Then we’ll really know that we helped make a difference.