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Who
You are Makes a Difference |
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A teacher in New York decided to honor each of
her seniors in high school by telling them the
difference they each made. She called each
student to the front of the class, one at a
time. First she told each of them how they had
made a difference to her and the class. Then she
presented each of them with a blue ribbon
imprinted with gold letters, which read,
"Who I Am Makes a Difference."
Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class
project to see what kind of impact recognition
would have on a community. 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 honored 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 honored him
for helping him with his career planning. He
gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt.
Then he gave him two extra ribbons and said,
"We're doing a class project on
recognition, and we'd like you to go out, find
somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then
give them the extra blue ribbon so they can
acknowledge a third person to keep this
acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please
report back to me and tell me what happened.
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 asked him
if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon
and would he give him permission to put it on
him. His surprised boss said, "Well,
sure." The junior executive took the blue
ribbon and placed it right o n his boss's jacket
above his heart. As he gave him the last extra
ribbon, he said, "Would you do me a favor?
Would you take this extra ribbon and pass it on
by honoring somebody else? The young boy who
first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in
school and we want to keep this recognition
ceremony going and find out how it affects
people.
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 the jun ior executives 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 put this
blue ribbon that says 'Who I Am Makes A
Difference' on my jacket above my heart. He gave
me a n extra ribbon and asked me to find
somebody else to honor. As I was driving home
tonight, I started thinking about whom I would
honor with this ribbon and I thought about you.
I want to honor 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 bedroom 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.
Besides your mother, you are the most important
person in my life. You're 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, "I was planni ng on committing
suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn't think
you loved me. Now I know you care. This is the
happiest day I've known." The boss went
back to work a changed man. He was no longer a
grouch but made sure to let all his employees
know that th ey made a difference. The junior
executive helped several other young people with
career planning and never forgot to let them
know that they made a difference it his
life...one being the boss's son. And the young
boy and his classmates learned a valuable
lesson.
Who you are DOES make a difference.
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Every 17 seconds someone
attempts suicide... Every 17 minutes someone
succeeds.
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