A True Story by Author Unknown
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 asked, "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
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 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, "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 that 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.
(Source: http://www.inspire21.com/stories/educationstories)
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