The first time I heard his story, it started with a simple question.
If you had the chance to save a kid's life . . . would you?
The answer is so very evident, but in this climate of compassion fatigue, this world so full of hurt, it seems like it's nearly impossible for one person to make a difference. Or so I thought until I met Tassy.
If you haven't heard Tassy's story, let me just start in the middle. Today is the middle. Today Tassy returned home. A healthy young man returned to Haiti after several months in Pittsburgh recovering from the surgery that saved his life. A lot of credit goes to a lot of amazing people for making that possible. There are too many people to list and, really, the names are almost irrelevant because not a one of them is looking for any sort of glory.
Tassy, however, is ready to stand in the spotlight. He's ready to bravely raise his voice and confidently belt out a song. He's ready to take on the world.
I had the extreme privilege of meeting Tassy this past weekend. It was a "right place, right time" sort of thing, but those few minutes of talking to the young man were enough to tilt the world. It was enough to remind me that one person really, truly does have the ability to make the world a better place.
After meeting Tassy, I went home and watched the video above. I was absolutely gobsmacked by how much Tassy has changed since I first watched it months ago. It's not so much that he's now a healthy young man with a most perfect face, it's that there is a fire in his eyes that wasn't there before. You can see hints of the man he would become in that video from last summer, but, really, you can't even begin to wrap your arms around the larger-than-life personality Tassy has now that he doesn't live in fear of dying. Now that he knows he's going to be around a while, you can feel his zest for life, his confidence, his determination to make the world a better place.
Tassy is going to change the world. Some how. Some way. He's going to do it.
Good luck, Tassy.