What difference are you making?

"You`re not here to make a living; you`re here to make a difference" 
- Andrew Matthews

People often believe that it takes a special kind of person to touch lives and
 change them for the better, but the truth is, everyone of us has the potential
 to do that almost everyday, often without even noticing it........

There was an art teacher at a local high school. He had been there for many
years and was well liked and respected by colleagues and students alike. On one
 particular day he was visited by an ex student, returning after four or five years
 to show off her wedding ring, her new baby and her promising career.
 He remembered her as a quiet, plain girl who mostly kept herself to herself
 and was generally quite shy. Now she was a confident young woman, and a
 mother. She had come to see her former art teacher for a specific reason.

“When I was in high school,” she explained, “my stepfather abused me.
 He hit me and came into my bed at night. It was horrible. I was deeply
 ashamed. I told no one. No one knew.

Finally, I decided I`d had enough. My parents went away for a weekend, 
leaving me alone for the first time. I planned my escape.

They left on Thursday evening, so I spent the entire night preparing. I did 
my homework,wrote a long letter to my mother, and organised my belongings.
 I bought a roll of wide plastic tape and spent an hour taping all the outside doors
 and windows of the garage from the inside. I put the keys in the ignition of my 
mother`s car, put my teddy bear on the passenger`s seat and then went up to bed.

My plan was to go to school as usual on Friday and catch the bus home, as usual.
 I would wait at home until my parents called, talk to them, and then go to the
 garage and start the engine. I thought nobody would find me until Sunday 
afternoon when my parents returned. I would be dead. I would be free.”

She stuck to her plan until the last lesson of the day, her art class. When her
 teacher sat on a stool next to her, looked at her artwork and slipped an arm 
around her shoulder. He made small talk. He complimented her on her ability, 
asked a few questions, listened to her answers, squeezed her arm gently
 and moved on. That was it.

She went home that Friday afternoon and wrote a second, different letter of
 goodbye to her mother. She removed the tape from the garage and packed her 
teddy bear with the rest of her belongings. Then she called her priest, who
 immediately came for her. She left her parent`s home and never went back. 
Her life turned a corner at that point and she gave her art teacher the credit.

 “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a
 listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which
 have the potential to turn a life around”

                             - Leo Buscaglia

Isn`t it interesting that in the politically correct world in which we live, where to
 touch a pupil would be distinctly discouraged and spending time on idle chit chat 
would be deemed “wasted” time, in this particular situation, with this particular
 teacher, it seemed perfectly natural. He probably used that approach a hundred
 times.It was his style. It was natural. It saved a life.

 To him it was nothing special. To this particular student, at this particular
 time it altered her entire life. She decided in that moment, in that art class,
 that if a casually friendly teacher cared enough about her to take the time to stop,
 make contact, look at her and listen to her, then there must be other people who
 cared about her too.

After all these years she had come back to tell him that he had saved her life!

The key point here is, he didn`t even remember the incident!

Whose life have you changed today??

 Whose life will you change tomorrow?