WHO YOU ARE MAKES A DIFFERENCE

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 they 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"
-Helice Bridges

You are under no obligation to send this on to two people or to
two hundred. As far as I am concerned, you can delete it and move on to
the next message But if you have anyone who means a lot to you, I
encourage you to send them this message and let them know You never know
what kind of difference a little encouragement can make to a person Send
it to all of the people who mean anything important to you, or send it to
the one or two 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 Who you are makes a difference!

And I wanted you to know you mean a lot to me!

You make a Difference!

author Helice "Sparky" Bridges

WHO I AM MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

"Deal with yourself as an individual worthy of respect, = and
make everyone else deal with you in the same way"
-- Nikki Giovanni

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