Pay It Down the Line

Someone took a chance on me before I'd earned it. Gave me work I wasn't quite ready for, vouched for me in a room I wasn't in, and treated my potential as if it were already proof.

I can't pay them back. That's the thing about that kind of debt. The people who help you early are usually too far ahead to need anything from you in return. You can thank them, and you should. But you can't square it.

What you can do is pass it down the line. Find the person who's where you were. The one who's a little raw, a little unproven, who needs someone to open a door they can't open themselves. Take the chance on them.

That's how the debt gets paid. Not back, but forward. The whole system only works if each person who got pulled up reaches down and pulls up the next one.

I keep a mental list of the people who bet on me. The best way to honor it is to become someone else's name on someone else's list.