Our Chapter members are encouraged to share promise stories with one another, and help inspire peers to make and keep their own promises. Below is the promise story of Mackenzie, a Chapter member from Woodridge High School, captured and shared with us by fellow Chapter Member Angelo…
“Mackenzie is very close to her family, especially her cousins; they are all like three peas in a pod. She is so close to her cousins that they don’t even feel like cousins, “they feel more like brothers and sisters” Mackenzie says. She was particularly close to one cousin, Caiden. Mackenzie and Caiden FaceTimed every day for hours talking about their day at school, girl and boy issues, and things they thought were just hilarious. They were planning a trip to Disney for August 29th, but unfortunately, everything changed just twenty days prior. Caiden was hit by a car and Life Flighted to Akron Children’s Hospital. Caiden was there for 13 days and Mackenzie was by his side the entire time. When she knew the time was right she made a promise to him, a promise she keeps close to her heart, she says, “I promised him that I will always have your smile on my face and to always make people happy like you would have Caiden”. Mackenzie continues to live this promise out every single day, I will see her in the halls of the school and she just has the biggest smile you have ever seen. She even told me that “if I were to break this promise I’d not only be letting myself down, but I’d be letting God and most importantly Caiden down”. Mackenzie lost one of her greatest friends on August 22, 2018. But she knows that even though Caiden isn’t physically here he is walking right next to her every day, even though it is hard for her to tell he is there. Mackenzie is so passionate about this promise that she doesn’t see it as a regular promise, no, she sees it as a destinationless journey. She has no idea what is going to come, she doesn’t know when this journey will end, or how heartbreaking it can be. Some people may say that promises aren’t beneficial, well that may be true in some cases but Mackenzie and I can promise you that if you find the right person and have the right reasons, a promise can be an amazing thing. Mackenzie would know, she says “this is a promise that I will always keep, because it has changed me for the better”.
