One day, when I was a freshman in high school,
I saw a kid from my class 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, 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, but we
talked all the way home, and I carried his books.
He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked
him if he wanted to play football on Saturday with me and 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 every day!” 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 himself 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
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 its depth.
Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture, you can change a person’s life.
