One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class walking home. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, “why would anyone bring home all of his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd”. I had a quiet 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 towards 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 he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw tears in his eyes.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, “Those guys are jerks. They really should get a life”. 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 were 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 a private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kids before. 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 everyday!” he just laughed and handed my 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 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 had 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, was I 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 looked (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 sibling, 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 him Mom wouldn’t have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a smile. “thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable.” I heard a 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.

~author unKnown~



~we should never underestimate the power of our actions, with one small gesture you can change a person’s life, for the better or for the worse~