the impact we have

I'm sitting here ... watching the pre-Oscars show where all the Beautiful People and, of course, Brangelina, casually stroll the excessively long red carpet. They give interviews, wave hello, and pose for a bajillion pictures that will be in all the gossip mags tomorrow. I know a few people who hurriedly watch as many up-for-an-Oscar movies as they can before the big day. Then they spread out their sheets of paper that list their votes for who they think will win, spread out their Oscar-themed, creatively named Oscar appetizers, and stare in awe for three hours (or however long the Oscars go for) at the television screens in front of them.

These actors and actresses can have a huge impact on people without ever knowing it. But all glitter and glitz aside, "regular" people have the ability to affect a person's life without even knowing it, too. Sometimes it's for the better; sometimes it's for the worst.

There are times when I want to scream at people for being so rude or condescending. There are times when I want to hug and kiss people (and I'm not a touchy-feely person) for being so generous or understanding. And then there are times when I am blown away that these people, both types, don't even realize they they made me feel so incredibly happy or deeply upset at that very moment. Maybe we get too caught up in our own lives; we have too much going on. But still ...

The funny thing is, we can be so affected by someone simply because of a look they give us ... because of a comment they say ... or because of a gesture they make. These things can get in our heads and change our moods for an entire day, a week, or even longer. These people can make us feel on top of the world. They can make us what to crawl into a hole. The even funnier thing is, they often don't realize the impact they had over us at that time. Sometimes they don't even think that what they said or did meant anything of real importance. Sometimes they don't know we exist.

People are just people at the end of the day. We walk around aimlessly, or completely focused, or trying to appear completely focused, but we cannot forget the impact we have on others around us, whether we realize it or not. We have the ability to touch lives everyday with our words and with our actions. We don't need to be powerhouse celebrities to do it. And that, I think, is pretty powerful.