PLEASE CARE ABOUT THE SOCIETY THAT WE LIVE IN!

After all of the negative news I've read about this week related to education in Quebec, the way teachers treat students and a student bringing a gun to school in Toronto, I thought that I'd take this opportunity to share something positive.  So I opened up my Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul book from high school and began reading. And VOILA!  Enjoy!

Always remember that one person can make a difference.  Here are two stories as proof:

Always Return Your Phone Calls
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  She was withdrawn around everyone except for Angela.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!"