Always remember that one person can make a difference. Here are two stories as proof:
Always Return
Your Phone Calls
Anonymous
Anonymous
Angela
knew that Charlotte, her best friend, was having a rough time. Charlotte
was moody and depressed. She was withdrawn around everyone except for
Angela. She instigated arguments with her mom and had violent
confrontations with her sister. Most of all, Charlotte's bleak and
desperate poetry worried Angela.
No
one was on particularly good speaking terms with Charlotte that summer.
For most of her friends, Charlotte had become to difficult. They had no
interest in hanging out with someone who was so bleak and in so much
pain. Their attempts to 'be a friend' were met with angry accusations of
depressed indifference.
Angela
was the only one who could reach her. Although she would have liked to be
outside, Angela spent most of her time inside with her troubled friend.
Then a day came when Angela had to move. She was going just across town,
but Charlotte would no longer be her neighbor, and they would be spending far
less time together.
The
first day in her new neighborhood, out playing with her new neighbors, Angela
wondered how Charlotte was doing. When she got home, shortly before
twilight, her mother told her that Charlotte had called.
Angela
went to the phone to return the call. No answer. She left a message
on Charlotte's machine. "Hi Charlotte, it's Angela. Call me
back."
About
half an hour later Charlotte called. "Angela, I have to tell you
something. When you called, I was in the basement. I had a gun to
my head. I was about to kill myself, but then I heard your voice on the
machine upstairs." Angela collapsed into her chair. "When I heard
your voice I realized someone loves me, and I am so lucky that it is you.
I'm going to go get help, because I love you too."
Charlotte
hung up the phone. Angela went right over to Charlotte's house, and they
sat on the porch swing and cried.
Courage in Action
By Bill Saunders
A couple of years ago, I
witnessed courage that ran chills up and down my spine. At a high school
assembly, I had spoken about picking on people and how each of us has the
ability to stand up for people instead of putting them down.
Afterwards, we had a time when
anyone could come out of the bleachers and speak into the microphone.
Students could say thank-you to someone who had helped them, and some people
came up and did just that. A girl thanked some friends who had helped her
through family troubles. A boy spoke of some people who supported him
during an emotionally difficult time.
Then a senior girl stood
up. She stepped over to the microphone, pointed to the sophomore section
and challenged her whole school. "Let's stop picking on that
boy. Sure, he's different from us, but we are in this thing
together. On the inside he's no different from us and needs our
acceptance, love, compassion and approval. He needs a friend. Why
do we continually brutalize him and put him down? I'm challenging this entire
school to lighten up on him and give him a chance!"
All the time she shared, I had my
back to the section where the boy sat, and I had no idea who he was. But
obviously, the school knew. I felt almost afraid to look at his section,
thinking the boy must be red in the face, wanting to crawl under his seat and
hide from the world.
But as I glanced back, I saw a
boy smiling from ear to ear. His whole body bounced up and down, and he
raised one fist in the air. His body language said, "Thank you,
thank you. Keep telling them. You saved my life today!"
