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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 I 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.
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."
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