Personally, I don’t think I make that big of an impact in my day to day life. Majority of my impacts are simple things that everyone does. What makes a true impact is doing something out of the ordinary, that affects more than just face value recipients. 

Despite that, there is a recent moment that maybe didn’t have a huge overall impact, but rather a large impact on one singular person. That singular person is someone I love. My grandpa . My grandpa is a loving individual that has only ever brought light to my life. This is why it hurt to hear that some of the light in his life had been taken away. His life long best friend had passed away. I knew how much this person meant to him since this was someone that not only did he spend time with, but also someone he could share similarities and experiences with. I can’t go too into depth as I never really knew much about the specifics of their relationship, but I didn’t need to.  

The second I saw him, less than a week after his friend’s passing, the impact and meaning of his death was evident. My grandpa had lost someone that he spent a majority of his life with, and with other relatives and acquaintances of his already frequently passing at this point in his life, his struggle was visual. I had come over to go get dinner with him and my brother, where he was sitting at the dinner table with his head down. I greeted him and hugged him, not initially thinking of what was going through his mind at that point.  I sat down across from at the dinner table where we sparked a conversation. Our conversation quickly transitioned to him bringing up his lost friend. It really had nothing to do with what we were originally talking about, I not even remembering what we were talking about at first. This random switch of topics instantly made me sense all the feelings and hardships that I previously stated. He was talking about how he and his friend used to fix up houses together, and how his friend was always superior at doing so compared to him. During this story he was telling me, his eyes were somewhat watery and his voice slightly cracking. By the time he finished, I couldn’t help but ask him if I could just give him a hug. I felt the sadness he felt, I knew when I hugged and told him that everything was going to be ok, that this had a great impact on him. He wiped his eyes and embraced me even harder as a response. We had a great time that night.  

I’m not one to typically be sensitive to other people but due to the severity of this situation, I did what I did.  This likely made the impact of my action even heavier. Making an impact is hard, it’s stepping out and doing something that doesn’t need to be done. Although I don’t think I make that great of an impact, I can acknowledge that what I did here did, at least to one person.