Thursday, April 9, 2015

Lasting Appreciation for Kindness

"You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life."
~ Zig Ziglar

No matter how much I write and think about kindness, one of the things that amazes me most is how long we remember kindnesses -- which means, of course, that kindness can have an incredibly lasting impact.

I thought about this again as I exchanged e-mails with a friend from high school on a business matter.  He is someone whom I have known since I was 13 or 14.  He is a few years older and was already an acknowledged leader in high school, serving as student body president.  One summer during high school, I took several college courses and was considering graduating early from high school and beginning college after my junior year.  Part of the issue was that my first-choice college would not accept me after my junior year, so I would have to transfer in if I still wanted to go.  I called my friend and we talked about it for a while.  Not surprisingly, he advised against graduating early.  "There is always time to hurry up later on," he said.  Thanks to his wisdom, I graduated from the school I had attended for 12 years and went on to a terrific experience at my first-choice university.

As we were trading e-mails recently, I told him how much I still appreciated his advice -- more than 30 years later.

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