positive deviance

   The idea of positive deviance is committing an uncommon behavior that benefits another member/group of society. It's a "random act of kindness" that someone wouldnt expect to see on a normal day. An example of this positive deviance was Julio Diaz who instead of fighting or reporting being mugged, he offered his coat to his robber and than took that boy out to diner. This was a shocking thing to do since most poeple would be focused on themselves after being in a dangerous situation  (especially if it's being mugged), however, Diaz decided to treat the boy to dinner, which was incredibly kind and might have greatly impacted the boy.            
   In an attempt to do my own act of positive deviance i bought a meal for the car behind me at Mcdonalds. I went through the drivethru and after paying for my own meal, I asked for the amount of the car behing me and than covered that charge so that they wouldn't have to pay. I think this was a form of positive deviance because it's uncommon to ever have a random stranger pay for a complete meal for you. In fact, I've never gotten free food unless I had some sort of coupon or the company was doing a promotion. My act was, therefore, deviant but it was also positive because it allowed for the people to get a free meal and see a random stranger complete a kind task.
    I enjoyed completing this task because it was scary to do something that was deviant and broke the rules yet it felt good because I knew it was a positive act. Since I was at a drivethru, I didn't get to completly interact with the car behind me but they seemed shocked and almost confused when the workers told them their meal had been completly payed for. I felt nervous at first comleting the tast since it just felt strange paying for a random stranger but after it was exciting to know I might have really impacted their day. Thinking about it, if i had been the car behind me, having someone pay for my food would have not only made my day but would really brighten my week too! I think this experiment showed me how our culture and social norms make us reserved and we usually never go out of our way to help strangers. I realized that if I tried a littler harder to help those around me, I could really make an impact on someone's life and maybe even cause a chain reaction of positive events. Completing acts of deviance show how easy it is to do the uncommon thing and just help someone without focusing on yourself!