You’ll forget a lot of high school, but not the stranger who helped when your car broke down. Be that stranger.

Memory keeps help from people who had no reason to give it. Most of school fades into a general impression, and then there is a sharp, permanent picture of somebody pulling over on a road or pushing a car out of an intersection. It stays because it was unearned and nobody was watching.

Stop the next time you walk past something small going wrong, instead of assuming someone else will. A dropped bag, a stalled car, someone looking lost, a kid who cannot reach. Offer once, plainly, and be fine with no for an answer. You will not remember doing it and they might.