Why should I?

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” - Edmund Burke.

This story isn’t big. It’s about me helping a person who probably forgot all about it.

There was this boy in my grade who I didn’t favor much. I saw him in the hallway while we were switching classes and he had dropped his colored pencils. I knew the right thing was to help him pick them up, but I started having this moral dilemma. After all, what obligation did I have to do him a favor? I could have easily walked away. I’ve learned that helping others should make you happy and make some kind of difference in this world. However, I had never felt that kind of joy before.

I handed him the pencils and walked into my history classroom. I thought about why I decided to help him. He had obviously already forgotten. I also knew that Newton’s third law states that every action—no matter how small—has some impact in our universe. I had this urge to rush forward and help him, but also this feeling that was holding me back, telling me to mind my own business; but in the end, I asked myself, “Why not? What bad can come of this?” I don’t know what impact I made, but I do know that I made a small difference in the universe.

You don’t have to have a reason to do the right thing. Just do it.