An Impact vs. an impression

An Impact vs. an impression

    This story isn’t new to many people; it has been circling around for a while and recently caught my attention. The first time I read it, it was very hard to read without crying. The story is so touchy and beautiful I read it over and over and every time I read it, it made me cry. It’s a beautiful, sad and happy story.  The story is about a child and his 5^th grade teacher, how they both made an impact on each other’s lives. At the beginning, he didn’t have much to offer due to his home situations and wasn’t even an average student, as a matter of fact he was a lost child.  But his innocence melted his teacher’s heart and that made his whole attitude change and he became a star student. Today that child is a Doctor at Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines in the Cancer wing and his 5^th grade teacher will always be his favorite teacher. This is the link: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_teddy_stoddard.htm

A lot of people can relate to this story. Almost all of us have someone somewhere in our lives that have made an impact on us and we will never forget them. In my life I am proud to say it was my High school Principal. I can still picture her beautiful smile. She had a Masters in English, she was very caring and loving and was nice to every single parent and her students. She was very respectful towards my mother too. I always liked that about her. I still remember the very first time I saw her, besides her pretty face I couldn’t believe someone could have long hair touching the ground, I always admired her hair. Here and there whenever she had the time she would come to our classroom and ask us students to put our textbooks away and she talked to us about life, simple things such as why you shouldn’t lie, or why doing the right thing is very important and how one person can make a difference. That was my favorite period in school. She was always positive, looking fresh and clean, helped others and didn’t have any kind of ego.

I can truly say besides my own mother being my role model, she was another role model for me. I was already living in the states when my mother told me she passed away. I felt a huge lose in me. When I asked my mother how she passed away she told me she died from a brain hemorrhage. Nobody knew but her husband was very abusive towards her and she had been under stress for a long time. But she never let anyone know what was going on inside of her home. Every day she came to school with pride, confidence, and a positive attitude to teach her students. For sure she made a huge difference in my life. She left an impact on her students and many people who got to know her but not an impression.  

    There are lots of kids out there in our own family or around us who need people who can impact their lives not an impression. An impact lives with us and many times travels with us too. But an impression doesn’t go that far. We all have that power and we all can be one of those people who leave an impact vs. impression.