You Can Make A Difference
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. Using a process developed by Helice Bridges of Del Mar,
California, she called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. First she told
them how the student 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.”

After 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 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 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 executive
asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he hive him permission
to put it on him. His surprised boss said: “We’ll sure.”

The 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 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 can 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 puts this blue ribbon that
says ‘Who I am makes a difference’ on my jacket just 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 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 tear, “I was planning on committing
suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn’t think you loved me, Now I don’t need to.”

Something to think about with the upcoming holidays. How many people do you know that
might need just a little bit of recognition or encouragement?
You Can Make A Difference
author unknown