Making a Difference

​Today I arrived at work at 7:30 a.m. and left my office at 5:05 p.m. It was a day like most others. I walked out of the school door and headed to my car feeling as though I could do more. I drove to the gym and had a healthy workout before heading home to make dinner for my husband. After cleaning up the kitchen I engaged in two separate WATG online meetings before getting started on my president’s blog. It’s 10:16 p.m. and I feel defeated because I want to change the world. It’s why I became an educator.  But today, exhaustion set in and changing the world seems out of my reach.

After sitting in front of my blank page for what feels like hours my husband asked, “How’s the blog coming?” I hung my head, closed my eyes and said it isn’t, so far it says, “President’s Blog”… And then I realized what I wanted to share. Each year, when a board member leaves WATG we give her or him a gift of a beautiful hand blown glass starfish.  With it, we tell the Story of the Starfish (Adapted from 'The Star Thrower' by Loren Eiseley 1907 – 1977).
There are many versions of this story but this is one that motivates me when I need it.
Because I’m a starfish thrower…​

One summer's morning a little girl was walking on a long, winding beach. She came across a starfish that washed ashore and was now drying up in the hot sun. She reached down, gently picked up the starfish by one of its five points, and tossed it back to the sea. The little girl smiled and continued walking along the beach. But after a few steps, she found another starfish. It too was dying in the sun. No sooner had she tossed this one back when she came across another starfish, and then another one. Each time she found one she picked it up and tossed it back to the sea.
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She reached the top of a sand dune and came to a sudden stop. What she saw below startled and amazed her. Stretching out in front of her were hundreds upon hundreds, of dying starfish washed up on the beach. Suddenly, she exploded into action and began to toss as many starfish as possible, one by one, back to the sea.

She was so busy tossing back the starfish, that she never even noticed that a person had stopped to watch her. Soon a small crowd had gathered. Some started pointing at the little girl and laughing. "That little girl's crazy," said one. "I know," said another, "doesn't she know that every summer thousands of starfish get washed up on the beach and die? It's just the way things are." "There are so many starfish. She can't possibly make any difference."

The little girl was still too busy tossing back starfish to notice them. Finally, one man decided he had seen enough. He walked over to the little girl. "Little girl," he said, "There are thousands of starfish washed up on the beach. You can't possibly hope, to make any real difference. Why don't you give up, and go play on the beach with the other children?" The little girl's smile suddenly vanished. She noticed the crowd of people for the first time, and she realized they were laughing at her. And now they had fallen silent, awaiting her answer to the man's question.

She was hot. She was tired, and close to tears. She began to think that maybe he was right. Maybe they were all right. She had been tossing back starfish for what seemed like hours, and yet a carpet of starfish still covered the beach. How could she have possibly thought she could make a difference? Her arms fell limp at her sides, and the starfish she was holding fell back to the hot sand. She started to walk away.

Then suddenly she stopped, turned around, reached back down, and picked up the starfish she had dropped. She swung back her arm and tossed the starfish as far as she possibly could. When it landed with a plop, she turned to the man, and with a huge smile on her face she said...

"I made a difference to that one!"

Inspired, a little boy emerged from the crowd, and he too picked up a starfish and sent it soaring back to the sea. "And I made a difference to that one!" he said. One by one every person in the crowd, old and young, joined in sending dying starfish back to the sea, calling, "I made a difference to that one," with each toss.

After a while the voices began to quiet down. The little girl became aware of this, and she wondered if the people were getting tired or discouraged. And so she looked across the beach. What she saw startled and amazed her. All the starfish were gone!

Many years later, another little girl was walking down the same beach. She reached the top of a sand dune, and came to a sudden stop. As far as her eyes could see, there were people tossing starfish into the sea. Curious, she approached an older man. “Could you please tell me sir, why is everyone tossing starfish back into the sea?”

The man, many years earlier, had been the little boy who was the first one to step forward and help the little girl save the starfish. "Little girl," he replied, "each year, when a summer storm washes thousands of starfish onto the beach, the entire town comes out to toss them all back to the sea? You see, we learned one summer, many years ago, that when we all work together, we can actually make a huge difference."

Changing the world is hard work. 
Tomorrow I’ll be back at it! 
Even if it is one child at a time. 
Please join me!
Sue Lee