5 WAYS TO PAY IT FORWARD

When I was visiting my family in Kansas a few months ago something terrible (almost) happened. It wasn't until 10pm when I got home and was about to pull out my laptop that I picked up my backpack and it felt alarmingly light. My laptop was nowhere to be found. Long story short - my travel/time anxiety got the best of me and I left my laptop in one of the bins going through security at O'Hare - rookie mistake, I know. I was stressing out about this all weekend long (O'Hare Lost and Found is only open Monday through Friday, go figure) but I received a call on Monday afternoon saying my laptop has been found! This was the absolute best feeling - I never get lucky like this! I had no way to repay anyone who played a part in returning my laptop (whether it was someone who went through security after me or a TSA officer) but this inspired me to spread some good karma. I will preface this by saying I know I should find small ways to give back every single day but it's so easy to get caught up in your every day life and routine that this just slips my mind. Here are a couple of small ways I chose to pay it forward.

1. Donate your clothes! This was not easy for me as I consider myself a bit of a hoarder. I still have a huge box in my closet filled to the brim with old clothes that have been sitting there for the 2.5 years I've been living in my apartment. 10 pairs of shoes, 2 jackets, a handful of jeans, and many tops later I did the unthinkable. This was so much more difficult than I thought it would be. No, seriously - I had to have few glasses of wine in the process. There were still some items that I just could never part with like all my Tri Delt bid day shirts, fraternity philanthropy tanks, my high school cheerleading sweat pants, and the heinous shorts I made in clothing class circa 8th grade. Still, I am pretty proud of myself. I know those items I am donating are going to get much better use out of them rather than just having them sit in the back of my closet.

2. Pick up someone's tab. It really is the smallest things that can make a persons day. For example, I will never forget the time when I was driving on the highway and I was really annoyed I left my iPass at school. Driving through the tolls was such a pain in the butt. As I approached one of the tolls I was told that the person ahead of me had paid for me already! It was something so small but it made my day and years later I still remember it. I chose to pay for the person in line behind me at Starbucks. Picking up someones $5 coffee is a small price to pay to give someone a nice little surprise - this might even make their day or week!

3. Volunteer. I am so lucky to be working for a company that knows the importance of giving back to the community. A few weeks ago our team spent one morning volunteering at phil's friends - an incredible non profit organization making care packages and providing support for individuals battling cancer. I can't wait to come back here and help out again! Another organization I want to volunteer at is Feed My Starving Children. Grab your girlfriends and turn volunteering into a fun group activity/date night!

4. Donate to a good cause. It is so hard to pick an organization to donate to as there are so many amazing organizations and foundatings and I wish I had the means to contribute to every single one of them. A cause that is special to me is St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. My sorority in college, Tri Delta, has a national philanthropic partnership so it has always been special to me. Anyways, another great thing about the company I work for is they match every donation you make - and this year they had two days where they matched every donation 2 for 1!

5. Drop off your old eye glasses at your local LensCrafters. I thought of this one while going through my clothes to donate. I found a pair of perfectly good glasses in my drawer that had been sitting there ever since I got new glasses. I had no use for them but I knew there had to be a better way to get rid of them other than tossing them in the trash. LensCrafters participates in the OneSight program - a family of charitable vision care programs dedicated to improving vision through outreach, research and education. Simply drop off your gently used prescription or non-prescription glasses at a LensCrafters location and they will recycle and hand-deliver your used eyewear to those in need during a OneSight Global Clinic.

What are some other ways to pay it forward?
xo, Allie