Unless you’re living like a hermit like Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, you’re constantly reshaping the course of human history without even knowing it. That’s right. YOU.

A lot of people think that what they do doesn’t matter. Let me tell you something.

EVERY LITTLE THING YOU DO MATTERS BECAUSE YOU MATTER.

That time you said thank you to the guy at Burger King, that day you said hi to the mailman, that time you held the door open for some old lady, that time you decided to keep your mouth shut.

It all matters. Every single event matters.

How many times have you heard “Man, if I was just a second too late, things would be totally different”, or “If I hadn’t talked with that person, I would never be where I am today”, etc. You’ve all heard the anecdotal evidence. You see it happening before your very eyes.

Let me give you an example.

You decide to go to Mcdonalds for lunch. You go up the register. Behind it, lies a pimple faced high school teenager trying in vain to put on a happy face. You flash him a big smile and order what you want very politely. You say thank you and I appreciate it. You treat him with respect.

Guess what. You just saved his friends and family the grief of his death. You may think what you did didn’t matter, but you didn’t know his story. He was contemplating suicide. He was being picked on at school, girls treated him like crap, his dad lost his job so he’s working overtime at McDonalds to pay the bills and he’s studying hard to keep good grades. Nobody talks to him or appreciates him or respects him in any way, shape, or form.

Now you come along and in his darkest hour, shine your bright light and he has hope once again. He goes on to college, majors in biochemistry, and discovers a breakthrough cure for cancer.

Who knows if your simple action was the catalyst that led to the cure of cancer? You can’t prove it and you can’t disprove it either.

Yes, it sounds cheesy and ludicrous, but every single person on the face of this planet has a similar story, maybe not as extreme though, of a time in their lives, when in their darkest hour, somebody came and shined the light. One event, one moment, that pulled them from the depths of despair and gave them the fuel to move on.

What am I getting at here? What you do matters. Every little thing. And what determines what you do? That’s right. What you think. By your very thoughts, you are changing the lives of millions of people. With that kind of duty, don’t you think you should take some responsibility on how you think?

Think positive toward people and you will change the world for the better, only this time, you’ll know it.

This article was inspired by someting I got in an email from one of my friends way back in the day. I still read it from time to time for a good reminder. If any of you know who wrote this or if it’s a true story, please let me know. Thanks!

__________________________________________________________________

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my
class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was
carrying all of his books.

I thought to myself, “Why would anyone bring home all his books on a
Friday? He must really be a nerd.”

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my
friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at
him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in
the dirt.

His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten
feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.

My heart went out to him!. So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled
around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, “Those guys are jerks. They really
should get lives.”

He looked at me and said, “Hey thanks!” There was a big smile on his
face.

It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him
pick up his books, and asked him where he lived.

As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen
him before.

He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never
hung out with a private school kid before.

We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books. He turned
out to be a pretty cool kid.

I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends. He
said yes.

We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I
liked him, and my friends thought the same of him!

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books
again.

I stopped him and said, “Boy, you are gonna really build some serious
muscles with this pile of books everyday!” He just laughed and handed
me half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were
seniors, we began to think about college.

Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I was going to Duke. I knew that we
would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem.

He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football
scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class.

I teased him all the time about being a nerd.

He had to prepare a speech for graduation.

I was so glad it wasn’t me having to get up there and speak. Graduation
day, I saw Kyle. He looked great.

He was one of those guys that really found himself during high
school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses.

He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him. Boy,
sometimes I was jealous. Today was one of those days.

I could see that he was nervous about his speech, so, I smacked him on
the back and said, “Hey, big guy, you’ll be great!” He looked at me with
one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled.

“Thanks,” he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began.

“Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through
those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a
coach…but mostly your friends…I am here to tell all of you that being a friend
to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a
story.”

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the
first day we met.

He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he
had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn’t have to do it later and was
carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little
smile.

“Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable.”

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy
told us all about his weakest moment.

I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful
smile.

Not until that moment did I realize it’s depth.

Never underestimate the power of your actions.

With one small gesture you can change a person’s life.

For better or for worse.

Edit: Turns out this was an adapatation of a story previously written by John Schlatter.

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/kyle.htm

(Thanks to Peter for sending this in.)

  
     

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