I have been spending some time looking up old friends on facebook. Now I have yet to click “friend” on most of them because I am a little apprehensive about opening my “now” life to my “before” life. Things have changed a lot since High School. But in looking up some of those from my past life er…younger life…I began thinking about the impact one person can have on another. And wondered if I had been one to impact someone significantly. For a moment I hoped that most of my impacts were positive.
**
His name was Jimmy.
And he loved me in the first grade. His eyes were green and he had freckles across his nose. Oh how I wish now that I had been more able to handle that first blinding crush of his. I muddled it of that I’m sure. My mom knew he loved me and coaxed me to share a table with him at the school picnic. I can still see his big, adoring, green eyes when I handed him a root-beer. I think I must have loved him just a little bit. Because when he fell off the class float, I cried. And not because it was scary. But because *he* had been hurt.
It is important to handle someone’s heart with care and gentleness. Especially when the love they have for you isn’t returned in the same way or fashion. That is what I learned from 7 yr old Jimmy back when I was young.
**
What was my impact? Did the little boy who had a crush on me when I was teenager feel loved even though I really couldn’t date a 9 yr old? Did the girl in the bathroom find comfort in the words I had for her that day when she needed a friend? Did the new boy in my school notice that I was the only one who refused to call him “Spaz” but instead said his name?
