Can I Really Make a
Difference?
Have you ever thought about or wanted to make a difference but did not really know what you could or should do? Maybe you felt that you were just a drop in the ocean, just one in billions? Who would pay any attention to you or anything you did? Most people tend to think BIG when they think of making a difference, and they think that only a very small percentage of people ever really can make a difference in the world. Well, that is not true! You can, without a doubt, make a difference. To make a difference, there is no reason to think on a big scale. Just because what you do may not impact millions, or even hundreds or thousands, does not mean you should not try to do something to make a difference.
Start small. Each day you can make one small difference in some person's life. It can be someone you know, but it also can be a stranger. It can be just smiling at a stranger, helping an elderly person get on the bus or cross the street, random acts of kindness. Nothing is too small to make a difference.
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Read this beautiful story about the starfish:
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One day an old man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy up ahead sifting through debris left by the night's tide. Every so often the boy would pick something up and gently throw it into the ocean. He did this over and over--stop, pick up, throw, move. Approaching the boy, the man asked, "What are you doing there, son?" The youth replied, "Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them back in, they'll die." The old man thought about what the boy said, but it just didn't make sense to him. He looked around at all the miles and miles of beach, and he thought to himself, "Why bother with just a few starfish?" So the old man said to the boy, "Son, don't you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds, if not thousands, of starfish, more than you could ever save? You cannot make a difference!" After listening politely to the old man, they boy bent down, picked another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, the boy said, "But, I made a difference to that one."
The moral of that story is that everyone CAN make a difference--even if that difference affects only one person. Every life you touch matters. Have you ever heard the saying, "Brighten the corner where you are, no matter how small your light is." Making a difference to just one can also have a ripple effect. The "ripple effect" is a series of things that happen as the result of one particular action. That one small difference you made can turn into a dozen small differences to dozens of people in just one day!
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There is another saying by John F. Kennedy. It is an old one, really old now, but it has not lost its powerful message over the years. "One person can make a difference, and everyone should try."