Footprints

Do you ever wonder whether anything you do makes a difference? Has a lasting impression on someone, or a bunch of someones, anywhere? Whether you leave any footprints in the world except your huge carbon one?
 
We tend to spend our lives just keeping up--doing what needs to be done each day, without devoting much time to wondering what effect we will have.
 
Today, I got an email about an educational video I made almost fifteen years ago. It seems--from the email, that is--that the video is still being used. It is not Sesame Street, with a life in products and on the internet and on the tip of people's tongues, but my video is still out there--still being used to help people, at least in this one place in the country.
 
When I made that video, I did so with a passion--a true belief that what it had to say was worth hearing, and that I could, in some small way, help improve girls' lives. A lot of time has passed since then--time in which I have been focused on a million other things. Yet, the email today reminded me that what I did all those years ago still has a footprint somewhere--perhaps even a lot of somewheres. In some small way, the work I did is still making a difference.
 
Never underestimate the effect you can have when you follow a passion, when you work on something you just KNOW needs to be out there. It may continue to leave footprints--even when you think you are walking in a completely different direction.