A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high
school by telling them the difference they each made. She called each
student to the front of the class, one at a time. First she told each of
them how they had 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, "Dad, earlier tonight I sat in my room and wrote a letter to you and

Mom explaining why I had killed myself and asking you to forgive me. I was
going to commit suicide tonight after you were asleep. I just didn't think
that you cared at all. The letter is upstairs. I
don't think I need it after all." His father walked upstairs, and found a
heartfelt letter full of anguish and
pain.
The envelope was addressed, "Mom and Dad". The boss went back to work
a changed man. He was no longer a grouch but made sure to let all his
employees know that they made a difference. The junior executive helped
several other young people with career planning and never forgot to let
them know that they made a difference in his life ... one being the boss's
son. And the young boy and his classmates learned a valuable lesson. Who
you are DOES make difference.
You are under no obligation to send this on to anyone ... not to one
people or to one hundred. As far as I am concerned, you can move on to
another page. But if you have anyone who
means a lot to you, I encourage you to send him or her this message and let

them know that they make a difference in your life. You never know what
kind of difference a little encouragement can make to a person.

I give you this blue ribbon. Who you are makes a difference.