What You Leave Behind

On some level I comprehended that you never realize the legacy that you may leave behind you in life. I recognized that from a first person perspective you can never appreciate the third person impact of an action, a word, a thought, a moment. Yet it did not really fully take a living form for me until this afternoon. This summer I am working as a teacher at an inner city mission where thirteen years ago (13 years ago!) I attended a program they have as a high school student for a week in the summer. I attended for a week two summers of my high school life, at the ages of 14 and 15. As I was sitting at the computer this afternoon writing an email to a friend in the guesthouse (dorm) of the mission, a man approached me and asked me if I was me (i.e. he sais "you're ___ aren't you."). He had been "security" and staff at the project 13 years ago (thirteen years ago!) and recognized me. How he remembered me from all that time and from all those different teenagers that passed through the program is completely and absolutely beyond my comprehension. Yet somehow I had made some sort of impact to the degree that looking at me now, as an almost 27 year old with my hair dyed a different shade of red and glasses instead of contact lenses and such, he instantly recognized me without me even speaking to him or knowing who he was before he knew me. I can not say what that impact was - I hope it was positive, and based upon his interaction with me I am pretty sure that it must have been (i.e. he was shocked and surprised but pleased to see me). So how something I said, did, or was 13 years ago imprinted itself upon someone to the degree that they would recognize me as an adult without any context or clues is an incredible feat that I do not fathom but am absolutely amazed by. It also leads me to want to live my life in such a way that if an action, word, or choice of mine were to again make such an impact on someone I could be confident that it would be positive and that I was leaving a legacy of value behind. I would rather be remembered for something small but significant, something that in its tiny way made a difference, for a thousand tiny moments, than for one grand gesture. A thousand tiny flames are far better than one blaze of glory that quickly burns out.