Who You Are Makes A Difference
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 on 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 to 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 when one of
the junior 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
an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else
to honor.
"As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking
about who 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 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 he couldn't
stop crying. His whole body shook. He looked up at
his father and said through his tears, "Dad, earlier
tonight I sat in my room and wrote a letter to you
and Mom explaining why I had killed myself and asking
you to forgive me. I was going to commit suicide
tonight after you were asleep. I just didn't think
you cared at all. The letter is upstairs. I don't
think I need it after all."
His father walked upstairs and found a heartfelt
letter full of anguish and pain. The envelope was
addressed, 'Mom and Dad.'"
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 they 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 in 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.
You are under no obligation to send this on to
anyone...not to two people or to two hundred. As
far as I am concerned, you can delete it and move
on to the next message. But if you have anyone
who means a lot to you, I encourage you to send
him or her this message and let them know. You
never know what kind of difference a little
encouragement can make to a person.
Send it to all of the people who mean anything
important to you, or send it to the one, two, or
three people who mean the most. Or just smile and
know that someone thinks that you are important,
or you wouldn't have received this in the first
place. Remember that I give you a blue ribbon.
Who You Are Makes A Difference and I Wanted You To Know That!
-- Author Unknown
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