The famous anti-Apartheid activist and former South African president Nelson Mandela passed away recently. There have been other notable deaths occurring lately, such as actors Cory Monteith and Paul Walker. Each of them made an impact in some way and will be remembered as time goes on.

All this has made me think about making a difference and the natural feeling of wanting to be remembered. I may not be able to star in a hit movie or TV show or conjure up a revolution, but I like to think that I can still do something special and worthwhile in my life.

As a student, my life focuses a lot on school, getting good grades and eventually getting into a good college. Other than that, I’m not completely sure what I’ll end up doing in the not-so-distant future. I’m usually wistfully thinking about the future, but it’s also a scary topic to me.

Being successful has become a major factor of society nowadays and hearing about all these significant figures in history class and through the news can be inspirational and motivating. Thoughts similar to “I should do something world-changing, too!” come into my head often and it may seem like over-dreaming but at least it’s a dream. Start out small and then something big can come out from dedication and hard work. Easier said than done, however.

I often forget that good ideas are quite useless if they are not acted out or are constantly pushed aside. Also, it’s easy to get discouraged when you realize you can’t amount to the same success of others high up in this world but that’s never the way to think of things.

I recently saw the Wikipedia page for the list of deaths in 2013. There was an inundation of names on the page, and it was just for the month of December. There were many names that I didn’t recognize but each were at least memorable enough to be named on a Wikipedia page. It just further proved everyone can make an impact because truthfully, Wikipedia is missing a lot more people for their list. If a list was gathered of all important, impacting people based on the opinion and experience from each person in this world, it would be endless.

What I’m trying to say is something that I usually have to remind myself over and over: making a difference in at least one other person’s life is an accomplishment in itself.

“Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.”

~ Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)