I had a great friend. We were always together our 7th grade year, and remained friends throughout high school. During our senior year we grew apart and when we went off to college, we hardly talked. There was no reason for us growing apart; we just went our separate ways. We remained friendly, but ran in different circles, until finally we lost touch.
Of course, about two years ago, facebook changed that. I don’t know if Melissa found me or if I found her, but regardless, we were able to keep up with each other’s lives.
Last year I saw a funny post in the news feed. As I investigated, my heart sunk as I realized that Melissa had passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly. She was my age. We went to school together, she was healthy, a school teacher and just as invincible as I am.
I often thought, “I will write her a note,” “call her when I am in Dallas,” “write on her facebook wall.” Time passes and tomorrow always seems like the best time to do anything. We are all guilty of it. We are all guilty of saying I could have, I should have, I wish I would have told them, I wish I would have visited one more time.
I am tired of saying that, so I have formed a goal for myself this year. I want to let everyone know how they have influenced my life. These aren’t just my friends and family, but people who I don’t keep in contact with, people who I might have only met once. It is amazing how very little you can do and still changes someone’s thoughts or actions. This project is, first and foremost, to say thank you and let everyone know how they have directly influenced the course of my life. But I hope that there are some other effects from this project as well. I hope that people see what they can do to someone’s life, and how they might have already done so.
The people I highlight are in no particular order, in fact, I jumbled them as much as possible. I also hope to have a picture of each one, so you could see some pretty interesting and old images on here.
So, if you see someone on the blog this year, please let them know. I don’t know where a lot of these people are, and some have gone on before us, but their family might be interested in their blog. I hope this will inspire others to say thank you and tell people their wonderful qualities. Remember, don’t wait until tomorrow, just tell people how you feel today, before it’s too late. I hope that everyone enjoys the “Say it Today” project.
The first entry will be to honor the one who inspired the project, Melissa Brinker.
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