To market, to market

I had an unexpectedly great experience Thursday afternoon. My friend Sarah and I, anxious to fill our pantry with some pre-paid-for groceries using our last remaining Flex Dollars, went to the Market in Hughes-Trigg and stocked up for finals week. I bought as many random things as I could (and as many snack items as this diabetic can realistically afford), and I still only spent about $60 of my huge reserve of Flex Dollars.

For those of you who are unaware with how dining dollars work, if you’ve purchased a meal plan, a certain balance is allotted to your account to spend at places like the Market and other campus dining locations, including the fabulous new snack cart you see around campus.

Anyway, as a commuter with a meal plan this year, I admit I haven’t taken advantage of my Flex Dollars as often as I have in the past, resulting in my having a hefty balance remaining as I prepare to graduate. This money, set aside when I purchase my meal plan, disappears if I don’t use it all by the end of a given semester. You may be expecting me to rant and rave about where our money’s going, but after I explain what happened following my initial shopping trip, you’ll see that I have a suggestion I’d like to pose to you before this semester draws to a close.

I bought what I thought was a fair amount of groceries, the cashier playfully teasing me about my thinking the Market was a Kroger, only to learn that I still had a balance far exceeding my realistic ability to spend. Exasperated that I still had over $100 left on my card and not knowing what to buy that wouldn’t spoil before I could eat it all, I happened to make eye contact with a girl sitting across the commons area from me. She called out and asked if I had any lotion she could use. I laughed. “No,” I said, “but let me buy you some.” I went back into the Market, bought a small bottle of lotion, and brought it back out to her. She couldn’t believe I was serious. Not that I blame her.

Anyway, I told her and her two friends that I had a lot of “money” that would just go to waste (or back into the school’s pocket) if I didn’t spend it, and that I’d buy any of the three of them anything they needed. Once they realized that I was sincere, we went back into the Market, the cashier teasing me once again, and, as one of them said, it was like an episode of “The Price is Right.” “I feel like I’m robbing a grocery store!” said one of my new acquaintances as she filled her small shopping basket.

So what happened? I ended up helping out a few sweet strangers that hadn’t had enough money between them to scrounge up some snacks. They’d been sitting out there in the commons area hungry and a little peeved that the first couple people they’d asked hadn’t even responded to a simple request for lotion, and then I happened along in the right place at the right time and basically offered a week’s worth of groceries for each of them, spending the rest of my otherwise-decaying Flex Dollars. It seemed so logical to offer to share that money.

In writing this commentary, I pose the following questions: How many of us have let a few Flex Dollars trickle away toward the end of the semester? Maybe we’ve been a little too lazy to get over to the student center and spend them. On the other hand, maybe we’ve been too busy. Whatever the case, where is that money going and what could you be doing with it?

My bright idea for this finals week – and something that will make you feel like you’ve made a real and visible difference – is for you to spend the last of your “Flex” on someone other than yourself. All those guys offering to wash your windshields at local 7-11’s? The homeless on the corners of intersections at Greenville or 75? Go buy a box of cereal, a bottle of juice, a can of soup…and GIVE. Roll down your window, offer your box of fruit loops or pop tarts, and feel like you’ve just bought lunch for a good cause.

You can either spend the money you’ve already set aside (a perfectly legitimate notion), spend it on someone less fortunate than yourself or let it cha-ching back into the cash registers of Dining Services or the University at large. I’m on my way out – counting down the days until I have my diplomas in hand and a life in the real world – but I know that I have been given certain opportunities and responsibilities in my time here and that one of those is to give back. It makes you feel great, you meet new people, and you make a difference.

I expect to see the shelves of the Market cleaned out by the last day of finals, guys, and I hope to see many of those so commonly overlooked “less fortunate” – on campus and off – well-fed and thankful for having been touched by a member of the SMU community.