friends
One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I was a kid from
my class was 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, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping
him so he landed hard 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. I
handed him his glasses and 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 gratitute.
I helped him pick up his books, and I 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. We talked all the way home, and I carried some
of his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked
him if he wanted to play a little football with 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 everyday!" He just laughed and handed
me half the stack. Over the next four years, Kyle and I became
best friends. When we were seniors, we started to think
about college. 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. 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 I had 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
kind) and smiled. "Thanks, " he said. He cleared
his throat and began his speech. "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, my friend saved me from doing the unthinkable."
I heard the gast 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 it's depth..........Never
underestimate the power of your actions. With one small
gesture you can change a person's life.
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