because I said I would. That was the name of the presentation I found myself in on a cold Tuesday night (when I would much rather be in bed watching This Is Us). Greek Life at my university was having a risk management presentation, and it was mandatory for 55% of our chapter to attend, so my sorority made it mandatory for us to attend. These were the kind of things I usually tried to get an excuse for.
My initial thought walking into this presentation was that this was gonna be like those drunk driver presentations they made us sit through in high school, teaching us about this risks of all the dangerous things people participate in during their college years.
I was wrong.
This guy, Alex Sheen, begins with little videos of dogs and jokes about our *exciting* town, and the story starts to shift. He tells us about his very average father, who lived a very average life. But his father was a man of his word, his father was always there, his father kept his promises, simply because he said he would. Alex told us how his father was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and eventually would pass away. And that is when the story progressed, one little thing Alex did went viral. He made little cards that said “because I said I would.” in the bottom corner. The rest of the card was blank. He said he would mail 5 of these cards to anyone who wanted them. The purpose of the card was that you would write a promise to someone on it, give them the card and when you completed your promise, you could get your card back.
And this little thing grew into a much bigger thing. He explained that mailing these to a few people everyday wasn’t a big deal, but then his inbox on social media received more and more messages everyday. 50 messages. Then 100. Then 1000. And eventually more. And it grew so much bigger than he ever expected, mailing these little cards to countries around the world. And peoples promises were more than to just other people, but to themselves and groups of people. One card read “I am serving my country… because I said I would.” Another read “I will not text and drive… because I said I would.” and that lady would keep it in her car and twist it into her phone case so it would cover the screen while she was driving. One man, who has also been diagnosed with stage four cancer like Alex's father, promised to make 826 notes on napkins for his daughter's lunches. One for every day she would be in school till she graduated, just in case he didn't survive.
But it was about more than just promises. It was about helping others and doing what is right. He spoke about raising money for kids with cancer, and walking 240 miles across Ohio for 10 days for three girls- Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus, who had been kidnapped and held captive for 10 years. And he did all these things, raised all this money, simply because he said he would.
But his presentation was more than just promise cards and doing what he said he would. His presentation was about being an honest, decent human being. He spoke about being loyal and a man of his word, being there when he said he would, and keeping promises. The whole point of all of this is a social movement and nonprofit dedicated to the betterment of humanity through promises made and kept.
For more information, here is the link to his website.
This nonprofit organization can also be found on social media.
