The impact we have ...

The child clutching a small container is being berated as a thief. The owner of a take-away outlet where the youngster hangs his head intervenes. He establishes that the young man has taken the container containing medicine for his sick mother. He pays the owner for the goods. He also instructs his young daughter to give the boy ingredients to make soup before he scampers away.

30 years on the self-same man in the take-away outlet collapses and is rushed to hospital. His daughter is overwhelmed by her father’s illness and how she is going to pay the medical fees. She tries to sell the take-away business.

As she wakes alongside her ailing father’s hospital bed she finds the hospital bill and a note saying the costs were paid in full 30 years earlier when the man covered the costs of the stolen medicine and threw in ingredients for soup. The boy is now the doctor.

I share this story of kindness – as shared at a workshop by the university’s strategic design agency Boomtown today – as a reminder of the impact we can have on other people’s lives, negatively or positively.

This is particularly pertinent in a university environment where research shows that lecturers play a critical role in student learning and achievement. But we know this, don’t we, because we all have own personal stories.

We have stories about lecturers who terrorized us; those who made us feel like we didn’t even exist and others whose contribution is a hazy if not a fond memory.

But then there are those who had the ability to encourage us to achieve more than we’d ever believed we were capable of doing. And it’s those lecturers, teachers and other individuals who deserve acknowledgement.

Fate brought that young boy, now a doctor, back into the life of the man who had saved him with his kindness as a child, and he was able to return the gesture ten-fold.

All too often, we only realize and appreciate the significant impact that some individuals have had on our lives as we age. By then we have lost contact and these special people have no idea of the role they have played. We’d like to acknowledge and thank them but time has moved on.

Occasionally, however, we are able to track them down … just as a former PE Technikon student (one of our former institutions) did of a staff member. And we realize all over again, the impact we have on others.

The staff member had just been doing her job … but in the eyes of the student she had been an agent for positive change; the staff member’s attentiveness, willingness to help and commitment meant the young women received a bursary to study. Without that financial support, she might never have obtained a tertiary education.

A thank you letter to that staff member made her realize all over again that what we do or don’t do, say or don’t say, can have long-term repercussions, either negative or positive.

It’s always vital then to remember the impact of our actions, especially when it comes to young people like our students.

A word of encouragement, a simple kindness or a pat on the back can transform a life as evidenced in the students’ thank you letter below. It was written in 2000.

I can hardly believe that today is my graduation ceremony. For my family, this is a first – I am the only person who has had a tertiary education and now, tertiary qualification.

I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for blessing me with their privilege …

I want to thank you for your constant support and kindness … Last, but not least, thank you for making such a valuable contribution to my life. I am eternally grateful. (Excuse the “soppiness” but this message comes straight from my heart – no other words can express how I feel.)

Please extend my heartfelt thanks to the rest of the staff who contributed to me getting the bursary and tell them I hope to make them produce a now officially-qualified Public Relations Practitioner. (Sounds quite good, doesn’t it!)

Moral of blog: for every action there’s a consequence. Let’s make our actions positive