How Have I Made a Difference?

It's a hard question to answer when someone asks you how you've made a difference. It forces me to think about all of the good and bad that I've done. And I find myself unable to answer when asked. Like there's nothing good I've ever done in my life, or that I've never made a difference anywhere, but the truth is we all make differences in our lives and in others. Even the smallest thing makes a difference and when I really try and look back at elementary school I realize all the things I've done just because I felt that it was right. 

In elementary school I was in a church group and we made three benches, all hand made and hand painted and we put them in our school. These benches were called the buddy benches and it was for people to sit when they didn't have anyone to play with. And everyday even though I didn't have many friends myself I would walk around watching for anyone to sit down at the benches so that I could invite them to play. And at every recess we would play games with the kids who didn't have friends or whose friends were at home and we’d play games like hopscotch, red light green light, tag, soccer, basketball, just about anything that they wanted to play. And I like to think that I made a difference for those kids, even if it's a little one.

A Big difference that I know I've made and have continued to make has been with one of my all time best friends who I've known since the first grade. When she was young her family wasn't the best, her father worked all of the time, her mother wasn't around and her sister was an angsty teen. And through the years I've been the one to help her when she was down or when she needed help with homework. She never felt like she was good at math and would often cry when doing homework, I would be there to help her through it. If she went to a different friend's house and she didn't have a ride home I was the one she would call. I know I made a big difference by giving her someone she could trust to be there for her. 

Middle school was hard for my small group of friends as we all started to figure out who we were and what we wanted to do with our lives. My friend group grew smaller and smaller as time went on and everyone else started finding new friends. But I was still the person that they could come back to if they needed help. One of my male friends was diagnosed with depression when we were in the seventh grade and I pride myself with how my child brain was able to help him through that. Being able to support him through that year was one of the best things I believe I've ever done. Even though not as were freshmans we've grown apart he will always be one of my closest friends and I will always be there for him.

In the seventh grade a new girl moved to our school, she was new and no one really liked her. She didn't have any friends for the first semester she was at our school until me and my other friend met her in our math class. She was smart and nice so we were nice back, until eventually she started sitting with us. And while it was a group effort I helped welcome her with open arms. As we got closer and became better friends I saw how bad the bullying really got, to the point where others started bullying me because I was friends with her. And like always I was there for her helping her, giving her a shoulder to cry on. 

I am no saint, and in the long almost fifteen years I've been alive there's more I've done. And not all of it has been good. I am not perfect, no one is, but you don't need to be perfect to make a difference, you just need to be willing to try.