a teacher in new york decided to honor each of her seniors in high school by telling them the differance 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 techer decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact recognition would have on 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 shirts. 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 some body 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 happend."

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 some body else? The young boy who gave me first the ribbons is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it effects people."

That night the boss come home to his 14-year-old son and sat him down . He said,"the most incredible thing happend to me today.I was in my office and one of 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 Make a Difference.` on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find some body 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.Some times i scream at you for not getting 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 difference to me. Beside your mothet, 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."

( chicken soup for the soul)