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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."
About a month later, 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, to 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." |
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