WHO YOU ARE MAKES A DIFFERENCE A teacher in New York decided to honour each of her seniors in high school by telling them the difference they have made. She called the students to the front of the class, one at a time, and told them how they made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each of them a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters, 'Who I am Makes A Difference.' She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honoured whom and report back to the class in about a week. One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honoured him for helping him with his career planning. Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss down and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket above his heart. That night the boss came home to his 14 year old son and sat him down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in my office and one of my colleagues came in and told me he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius. Imagine, he thinks I'm a creative genius. Then he out this blue ribbon that says 'Who I am Makes A Difference' on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honour. As I was driving home tonight, I thought about you. I want to honour you. "My days are really hectic and when I come home, I don't pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your bed room being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me. You are a great kid and I love you!" The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop crying. His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his tears, "Dad, I was planning on doing something to myself tomorrow that could have been terrible. I didn't want to live any longer. I couldn't take things anymore. I wanted to end it all. I didn't think anyone understand me, or even cared. I didn't think anyone loved me. I didn't think you cared. But this changes everything. Now I know." |
