People Who Made a Difference

Ten years flew by since I came to North America (“Coming to the New World … America”). In the decade that passed, and after dedicating twenty-two years in standard schooling and technical educational, I’ve become increasingly involved in the community, enjoying cultural interactions, and making new friends from backgrounds different than mine. To me, it has been a world discovery stage, and a different learning experience.

It is April 16th 1999, my first day of work at Lucent Technologies in Naperville, Illinois. “We make Telecommunication works,” this is the branding statement recited and handed out in the new employee orientation. As I learned more about Telecommunications system, I realized that it is an overwhelming complex human creation. It has been a steeper learning curve than what I expected to climb, given that my under and post graduate studies were in a different engineering specialization. As I walked through the hallways or sat back, I started to wonder and ask myself, “How such system was put together?” “How is it working where no one engineer knows or can claim to know its nuts and bolts from end-to-end?” My thoughts even took me farther as how this nation was built and reached its status, while, to my own senses, most American seems to be normal average human beings who go out for work every day, and say hi with a smile. Nothing out of the extraordinary I have seen.

I have always admired the quality of people I heard of and read about in Islamic history; people who combined high caliber character, ingenuity, integrity, with overwhelming contributions that many in the West would be puzzled of what and how these individuals have done. No one denies scientist, philosophers and leaders of the industrial revolution age, but I have not seen something unique that would have a significant impact on me, so far. And I believed there is none in America that I would learn something from, beyond what I already know, particularly in the area of values and character.

This was my thought, until I worked with the first man who changed my mind. He is a Systems Architect at Lucent. I was impressed by his personality, character, knowledge, and appearance. For a relatively long time after that, I came to almost a firm belief that he is probably the only and last American person I would ever meet in my life whom I would learn something from or admire his personality. In the fall of 2005, I met another outstanding and a good man in the National Training Center of the Boy Scout of America. There, as it is said, the beads of the necklace started to roll down, one after the other, to reveal quality people who made a difference in my life as well as for others around me. I started to become more alert and on the lookout for humanities aspect of individuals and groups. It revived my memory of Canadian people whom are a must to talk about, too.

The new thread of posts “People Who Made a Difference” presents a sample of American people I encountered in my small circle of life whose words, actions and little good deeds will propagate and last in memory more than they ever thought. They are living examples of role models, for others to follow. It might be people you already know, or even better, you who are on my distribution list! The majority of the people I’ll write about are not from my cultural background, ethnicity, or faith group.

The stories will be for individuals, groups, organization and businesses that helped me discover the potential of America. Stories will include people and organizations at Lucent Technologies, those I associated with in Scouting, especially Troop 317 of the Holy Spirit Catholic Community, the PDAC of School District 204 in Naperville, Illinois, my friends in the Muslim community as well as others I am honored to know them. I apologize, if I missed some folks.

At the same time, there are friends whose misjudgments have caused me prolonged grief, and sleepless nights. They have also made a difference; a positive one too, when you wisely reflect on it. I’ll mention how the heartburn their oversight has caused was a catalyst of growing subtle qualities that good deeds alone won’t accomplish in one’s character. No reference, direct or indirect, will be revealed with regards to the situations or people involved, rather, only the moral take-away.

I’m sure you will be touched with good deeds stories, and will learn something new from the pleasant and hard facts, as I did. You may want to consider keeping a record of similar observations for living examples along your path in this world, to share and inspire others too.

To make these articles easily identifiable, the Subject line in the emails and the Post Title will be tagged with [PMD], short for “People who Made a Difference,” so you can easily identify them through the barrage of emails that bombard your inbox. The posts will not be ranking people, because each exhibit a trait that is puts him or her at the top. However, I will start with the first two who opened my eyes to what’s under the skin of the American people.

Let’s begin with the first person …

To be continued…