The Difference I Made

I left work in a really bad mood. The boss' daughter had been as idiotic as ever, and we weren't able to leave until almost twenty minutes after we punched out. I had to drive D.J. home, and then I headed back to my house. Normally it takes ten or fifteen minutes to make it home, but because I hit all the green lights I made it in less time. (No, I wasn't speeding- I'm kind of a grandma when it comes to driving- only 5 miles over the posted limit, never more.) Just as I pulled into my driveway the garage door was going up and my mom started to back the van out. I quickly turned off my car and jumped into the back seat of the van with my older sister. We turned out of our cul-de-sac and drove to our friends' house to pick them up. Sami and her son were going to see The Fantasticks with us, and on the way to CP I talked to to Tommy and my sister about any and everything. My sister has a very odd sense of humor, and she just likes to rip on me. (Okay, I guess it's not so odd- I do the same to her.) Tonight was no different. She told Tommy, "I feel bad for you, you have to put up with Ashley everyday on the way to school," and she asked him, "Don't you ever want to hit her so she'll shut up?" I wouldn't have felt bad if he had agreed with her. Being me, I would have just laughed it off. Contrary to what I thought, though, he didn't agree with her. He just looked at me and then at her and said, "No, I like Ashley. She's one of my only friends- I'm gonna talk bad about her. Come to think of it, neither should you. She's really cool if you stopped being mean to her for a minute and got to know her." He didn't say anything else, he didn't start laughing, he didn't even smile at her to show he was being sarcastic.
On the way home and during intermission I was talking to Tommy about what he said, and I realized that I've made an impact on his life. I haven't done anything drastic, either, I've just been nice and asked him to hang out with me and my friends. Talking to him put a lot of things in perspective, and it gave me a renewed sense of self-pride. Even though he thinks I've changed him, he's done me a lot of good, too. I'm not going to worry about work anymore like I have. It matters, but not enough that I should be fretting about it at home and school. I'm just going to be nice and have fun for the rest of this year:)