About Unwritten

Most strangers pass through our lives unnoticed. You brush past them on the train, order your coffee, nod politely in a lift. But every now and then, one of them shifts something in you.. a moment so small it’s almost nothing, yet you remember it years later.

I’ve had strangers step in for me when they didn’t have to. The French lady in Paris who noticed I looked lost and walked me three blocks to my destination. The bus driver who caught sight of me running from across the street and waited instead of pulling away. The hawker centre stall owner who refused to accept payment for my drink because I didn’t have a smaller bill.

They had no stake in me. No reason. And yet, they chose to give me something valuable: their time, their effort, their attention.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: you owe them nothing back. Not to them. But you do owe the world something because of them. You owe it forward. That’s how this works. The ledger isn’t closed when the moment ends; it stays open, waiting for you to carry that generosity into someone else’s life.

The thing is, most of us don’t. We tell ourselves we’ll do it when we have time, when it’s convenient. And in the meantime, we walk past opportunities every single day.

Every act of kindness you’ve ever received is an unpaid debt. Settle it, not backwards, but forward. Leave someone better than you found them.