Doing community service work, I spent three or four hours handing out warm dinner to the homeless out in the streets. After that I went to a   16  shelter not far from the Bay Bridge.

I was in high school and at the time my sister was too young to   17  . She wanted to help,    18  she made four or five dozen chocolate chip cookies for me to    19   and hand out to people. When getting to the homeless shelter I passed out the remaining meals. I had the containers with my   20  cookies in them and began to   21  , offering them to anyone near me.

I    22   an old gentleman and said, “Sir, would you like a cookie?” He stopped and turned around, looked at me    23  in the eye and said, “What did you say? Did you call me sir?” I told him I had, and his eyes    24   a little bit and he said, “No one has    25   called me sir.” He was completely taken aback.

It struck me. 

I explained I had been raised that    26   color and social status, everyone deserved     27   . It made me    28   to think that just because he was homeless, no one    29  him the honor. It broke my   30  , and I couldn’t help   31  cry. I just didn’t understand    32  no one ever called him sir? I had never thought that anyone was below me because I wasn’t raised that way. Every    33  person deserves to be treated with dignity. Years later, I still carry that memory and the    34  it taught me. Sometimes, what we take for granted can    35  make a difference in someone’s life.

How have you made a difference to others? How have others made a difference to you?