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.
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.”
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 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, “I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad,
because I didn’t think you loved me. Now I don’t need to.”