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 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 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.
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 honour, 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 jjacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he
said, "Would you do me a favour? Would you take this extra ribbon and pass
it
on by honouring 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
officeand 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 honour.
As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would
honour with this ribbon and 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 bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight,
I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you knowthat 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 heart-felt letter full of
anguish & pain.
The envelope was addressed, "Mom & 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 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.
If you want, you can send it to all of the people who mean something to
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
Keep the Circle Of Love going by doing Random acts of Kindness. Love Each
Person unconditionally and Lets try to Heal the Earth by spreading Love and
Happiness to one another.
It doesn't take much to just smile at someone to brighten their day:~))


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