A Stranger's Compliment

Rexburg’s weather is terribly bipolar - but in the first few days of returning to this favorite town of mine, I was pleasantly surprised with how lovely the weather was. It felt almost as though I had been able to take a little patch of Arizona with me – stuffing some sunshine and dry warmth in my pocket and then letting it spill out over the top, along with my breezy blouses, sundresses and the uncontrollable urge to continually smile from all the heat and sunshine.

But when the weather retaliated this last week and took a sharp turn, I remembered why I still love it here as much as I do. Even in the coldest months that I’ve spent in Rexburg, it somehow hasn’t dampened my experience in the slightest. The school I attend here has an indescribable atmosphere. It’s almost as though the cold isn’t able penetrate because of the people and that tangible aura felt. Most of the people here haven’t become caught in the chokehold of the world – that craving for excess, recognition, and surface success. Is anything you learn worthwhile, when you are so caught up in your scholastic achievements that you disregard or devalue the very presence of those around you? I believe that true success is not based on what your resume looks like, but on the relationships you hold and your daily interaction with others. The way you treat those that otherwise wouldn’t matter in your life – people you might never see again or someone that the rest of the world would label as “unimportant” to one’s connections and “success” – is a true manifestation of someone’s character.

So in the middle of an otherwise bone-chilling morning - bundled up in my parka and scarf, hustling to my Humanities class and laughing to myself that we’re inching on May – I was taken back by a comment made to me by someone I didn’t know. As simple and as small as this may seem, he looked me in the eye and told me he loved my hair – my wildly curly, rampant hair.

I don’t know this person’s name, and I might never see this person again… but he reminded me of something important. Too often we are afraid to speak our minds, to tell someone what we think, because society has conditioned us to be silent. Too often we generate a thought that if shared would uplift another – but we fail to act on it because we believe it to be insignificant, and the thought passes away without an audible exit.

You’ll never know the impact you have on someone until you act on your thoughts – on those promptings and inklings that, however small they may seem, have an infinite potential to lift those around you.

Are you making a difference?