15 - Zack Rabold - Quality over quantity

Quality over quantity Legacy is a heavy word. Usually when we think of a legacy we think of people with a large impact on the world as a whole. Kobe Bryant, Walt Disney, Serena Williams, Michael Jackson. All people with a massive legacy known by millions of people everywhere. Most people dream of leaving behind a legacy to compare to the legends I just mentioned, but I think a legacy should be something much more attainable. The legacy I want to leave behind isn’t one of history books. I don’t feel like in order to have a legacy I need to be widely remembered. The saying quality over quantity rings true to me in that I don’t want to be known by everyone, but I want to be remembered well. When I die I don’t care what words are written in my eulogy. “He was such a good man,” isn’t a phrase I want to be spoken but instead one that’s thought of. Anyone can write good things for people to hear. I’ve spent the last many months doing that exact thing to you. Writing all these words so that they sound pleasant. I would be lying to tell you some of them weren’t empty. However I tried my best to pick topics I had actual feelings about. When I would write I wanted my words to fill the page with meaning and thought and maybe even flicker a light of agreement in someone’s head that sticks with them past the three minutes it takes to read and scramble out a comment for a grade. I want my legacy to be one that people are thankful for. Many people are remembered for their humor, or how smart they were, or some other quality that while they’re great to have, don’t inspire anything. They are forgetful. Replicable. Everyone we meet leaves somewhat of an impression in our head. The person who held the door for me the other day, or the girl that cut me off in traffic. Each time we interact with them that impression molds and shapes into perception. How I see someone. When the same person who held the door for me the other day hands me the pencil I dropped or tells me my backpack is open my perception of them grows better and better. One day will be the last day I’ll ever interact with them and if they had the right kind of impact on me, I will remember not the shoes they wore or the car they drove but their character towards me, which will remain as their legacy in my mind. I can only hope to leave a good perception of myself for the character I had towards other people regardless of how many people that is. 461