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."
Helice Bridges
P.S: taken from the book 'Chicken soup for the soul'
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