Making a difference… then and now…

Yesterday I took a trip down memory lane even though I never thought that it would happen.  I was too wrapped up in today to even think that yesterday, or even 12 years ago would cross my mind.

I was so concerned about getting children to games, playing in the rain, missing cleats, to comprehend what I was about to enter into.

But the moment that Samara and I left her game, already drenched, to head to Matthew’s game in Botetourt, the memories came flooding back.

We passed several Krogers and Wal-Marts that sit now on what once were fields and I felt old when I pointed out to Samara that “I can remember when that was just land” coupled with a few, “I wonder when that was built?”

I headed out to the land where I grew up and I found myself recounting to Samara the times that things were built, how old I was and how I remembered things.  If I was boring her, she didn’t seem to let on and for that I was grateful.

As we turned on to Rte 221, I mentioned to her that when I was her age, the road that we were driving on was just two lanes but that it had been widened my senior year in high school.  I explained how, as 17 and 18 year olds, we were too impatient to wait through the construction traffic, so we would take the country roads home… until the cops got smart and would sit behind the bend of a curve and wait for us to round the corner.  I also mentioned how I had never gotten a ticket, but came close on more than one occassion.

And then we arrived at Read Mountain Middle School.  As we drove through the neighborhood to get to the school, I told her how I had been there before they even broke ground, before they even had the go ahead to build the school.  I explained how if the school were built when I was Matthew’s age, it’s where I would’ve gone, but that at the time, there was just one middle school all the way on the other end of the country… an hour bus ride and lots of trouble if we missed the bus in the morning.

I played a part in the building of that middle school and I can’t help but remember that whenever I go to that school which is once a year for a football game.  My honors independant study my senior year in high school, in addition to working Friday Night Football at the local NBC affiliate, was to put together a video informing county residents about the bond referrendum that they would need to vote on and why they should vote in favor of it.

And so together, with 3 other students, one who is a weather guy at another TV station in town now, we created this video.  We did the interviews, we did the research, we shot the video, and we edited it.  We even were on the news… well, I wasn’t… because we were on a cruise…

Today, my daughter, who normally can’t be bothered with such things, asked to see the video that we created, and so I drug it out of the back of the cabinet where all the other VHS tapes are and we watched it.  All 10 minutes.

And she never complained.

And while I watched it, I was reminded of the passion that I had at that age.  The passion to make a difference.  The passion to do a good job no matter the project.  I was also reminded of why I was asked to take on that project… because I am talented and I have a knack for that type of thing.

The editing was horrible.  The graphics were even worse.  We’ve come a long way in the last 12 years when it comes to editing videos.

But it was nice to be reminded that I am intelligent.  I am smart.  I am creative.

And I?

Made a difference in Botetourt County 12 years ago.

And as much as I think my efforts are fruitless today, I know that even now, 12 years later and in a different county, I am still making a difference.

And that feels good.

Until next time…