[Mouse_]

As a child I remeber I use to climb on top of a high wall and jump off. I always remember this guy that worked in one of the firms where I lived walking up to me and instead of shouting at me he begun to tell me how in his Army experience how he learnt to jump out of an Aeroplane and land safetly, I remember him saying that one should always bend ones knees and keep their face looking outwards. I took his advice when he left and begun practising his way, and he was right, it was a safer landing but what mattered the most was he saw me, he spoke to me, he cared.

I've just remembered this today because I live next door to a very dysFUNctional family, many kids, much verbal abuse and such but one of the kids a boy aged 15 always in trouble with the police and such always hangs out of his bedroom window when he hears me pull up onto my drive and says "hi *****", I always smile back and today I came back from Grocery shopping, he looked out and I said, "well you going to help me carry all these bags indoors?" He smiled and before I knew he was down at the front door and helping me. As we carried the shopping in I was asking him how his getting on and stuff and his voice changed and his body seem to take on an excited pose and he begun telling me all these different things and dreams he has. It made me feel nice let alone how he felt, and I then remembered the guy from my childhood and how just that one interaction meant a lot more to me than it proberby did to the guy.

Who else here has had that "Just one person" memorys?

[pegasus]

Oh, thank you for sharing (((((((( Mouse )))))))))

Yes, I was very young, must have been about 8 or 9 I think. I remember I was at school and crying. The teacher came to me and asked what was the matter. I told her that the 'tooth-fairy' never came because I was a bad girl. Back in those days, our desks were wooden and had a lid to store your pencils and stuff in. The next day I looked in my desk and there was a 10 pence wrapped up in a note. The note said, 'Your ARE a good girl.' I'll never forget that. Someone cared.

[MINIME]

My mom never fed us and if we took food she would beat us. One day my sister and i walked into kfc and asked for water and they gave us all the food we could eat i was 7.

[Sannah]

What a nice thread Mouse, thanks! How nice of you to befriend that kid!

I was a clerk at the hospital my last year of high school. I was about to graduate and my boss asked me if I was going to college. I said no (no one in my family goes to college!). He said "What! You have to go to college!" I went off and made arrangements to go to college (took the tests, the paperwork, etc.). After I was accepted I told my parents. That boss changed my life with one sentence (no one had ever told me that "I" could go to college). I did contact him years later to tell him.............

[hangingon]

Sannah,
I had a similar story. No one in my immediate family (I have 5 siblings) had went to college. Not even my parents. None of us children even graduated from highschool. I had only attended school until 9th grade, then dropped out. We had moved so much that I could not handle the school swithches.

Anyways, one of the pastors from church I use to attend came up to me one day and said you are so wonderful with children, why don't you go get your GED and go to college? Like you I had never even given it thought. So I did just what he had said. I literally went and took my GED not even two months later, didn't take any classes for it and passed.

I was thrilled. I attended a private university for education, taught for 2 years and then returned to college for nursing. When I took the test at that college I had passed it with such high grades that I was approved for honors classes. I was shocked. I never did take the honor's classes, I wasn't that confident in myself. However, when I was accepted into the nursing program I had a 4.0.

It is amazing how just hearing simple words from someone can mean so much.

Mouse you never know what that one talk with that young boy means to him. I had something similar happen with one of my elderly patients last week who wanted to die. After sitting down and hearing her out, I found out that was not what she really wanted to do, she just had to much going on with being in the hospital. The drs. were about to grant her that wish that night by taking her off the oxygen, I'm so thankful that I listened to my instincts at the time and offered her an open ear. She was alive and doing well the next day that I went in.

[imapatient]

The one story that comes to mind was freshman year in high school. The teacher of religion class--Catholic school--asked me to stay after. He said that he wanted me to take more of a consistent lead role in discussions. He said that the other students looked at me as a leader, and that in discussions their participation depended on my participation. If I spoke up about the topic, that it seemed to give "permission" to other students that it was o.k. to discuss it. On the other hand, when I didn't participate as much--according to him, the others held back, having not felt like it was "safe" or O.K. to talk about the topics. It blew me away. I felt so inferior that it was unimaginable to me that anyone else would care about what I did, that I was a real leader and important figure to the other students.

Maybe he was more trying to help me build my self-esteem and confidence than promote better class discussions. Whatever it was, it was really important to me that someone took the time to care and do something to help me feel better about myself, and it worked.

[Perna]

I love when that happens, when we "get it" for others and help.

[Kiya]

Originally Posted by MINIME

My mom never fed us and if we took food she would beat us. One day my sister and i walked into kfc and asked for water and they gave us all the food we could eat i was 7.

that is awesome

[Kiya]

My "one person" experience came in sophomore year in college. I was doing poorly in everything, and had just gotten a D on a paper from a prof i loathed. I tore it in half, and stormed out of the building, sobbing, and stood in the park blocks (probably kicking the tree). This homeless guy comes up and says, "Stay in school - it's worth it, trust me." I could have been crying about anything; boyfriends whatever you know? But he chose to speak directly to my unknown challenge. Now I am 3 classes away from finishing my Masters degree in leadership and am holding a 3.92 Cumulative GPA (after being a failing student nearly all my life).