One Friendly Act
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 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
his books for him. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if
he wanted to play football on Saturday with my friends and me. He
said yes. We hung 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’re going to really build
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. On graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one
of those guys that really found him during high school. He filled out
and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than me 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
him or her. 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 its depth.
Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small
gesture you can change a person's life, for better or worse. God
puts us all in each other's lives to impact one another in some
way.
1 comment:
Nice:-)
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