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
the 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 acknowledgement 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
executive came in and told me he admired me and gave me a 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
who 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."
