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 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 him or her this message and let them know.
You never know what kind of difference a little encouragement can make to a
person.

Please feel free to take the blue ribbon below, and send it to all
of the people who mean anything important to you, or send it
to the one, two, or three 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 that.

~author~
Unknown at this time