Mindlessly scrolling through Facebook as I so very rarely do anymore, I was late in the realization of the loss of someone who I was not close to, but knew and always heard only wonderful things about him and especially his music. But this isn't a post about the loss of someone, this is a post about the impact one person can have on so many lives.
I scrolled through his Facebook looking at all of the prayers and RIPs for him. I read every single one of them. It blows my mind how SO many people had SO much to say about him, and all of it unique. It wasn't just surface level thoughts saying only "rest in peace man". They were all thoughtful and talked of how much this guy inspired them in so many ways. Even people who had only met him once or twice. And then I thought about what I knew about him. I remembered being at the park one night goofing off with friends and he was there, climbing on top of a post in the middle of a prickly shrub and I was thinking what a funny guy he was. And then I remember when his speech he gave at his high school was all over facebook and all of our friends were talking about it and then I watched the video of it thinking wow that guy has some forward thinking ideas. He's gonna change the world some day. And clearly he has, even if only for the too short time he was here. He accomplished that. Among other things I'm sure. The words his friends and acquaintances wrote on his wall really touched me.
It also made me wonder what kind of impact I have made on this world. I always say I want to be a teacher because I do want to impact lives every day. But that's if and when I do become a teacher. Not everyone gets a tomorrow. What have I done today to change the world or change someone's life? And I can't think of one thing. But then my mind goes to the idea, well not every person is going to change the world or impact a life every single day of their lives, they have off days too. What kind of thinking is that? That's like saying let me take a break from life today and I can get back to it tomorrow. No that's not how it works. There ARE people out there changing lives and changing the world every day. They aren't worried about relaxing watching Netflix all day. And if they are using social media it's to promote changing the world, not watching other people change it as they scroll through a feed. If everyone were to think thoughts like "Oh, I'll change the world one day..." nothing would ever get done and the world would be still. And that's how I felt today. I was scrolling through this guys facebook who actually changed peoples lives, and so many of them. What would people say about me if I were in his place? Oh she was a nice girl I'm glad I met her. RIP. She was a good friend. I'll miss her.
Not to be morbid because that's not the point of this. The point is that I don't want to wait for one day to change the world.
And this summer I think I've actually done more changing than I have in my entire life. My boss always says before every work session to go out there and change lives and that we do change lives. And I do believe that. But my students change my life just as much if not more than I'm changing theirs.
Although that's like almost 21 years of doing what? Not a whole lot of impacting. Okay maybe I can take off like 10-15 years for my growing up. But I'm all grown up now.
I do want to change peoples lives someday by being a teacher. But that's someday. I want to do more of what I can today. And tomorrow if I'm lucky to get it. So that in the possibility that I don't get to be a teacher in that some day, it won't have mattered because in the time I've been here I will have already impacted lives.
Nick Cashaw you have moved on to bigger and better things and you are STILL inspiring people like me who you haven't talked to in years to be better and to change the world. You're the kind of person I look up to and aspire to be like. You inspire people without even trying and I hope you get to look down and read all of those beautiful words that people wrote about you so that you know how much impact you've had on this world.
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