I recently featured a young woman who made me think about the impact that our words, as writers, speakers, and human beings, have on the people around us.

I was sitting in the reception room of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, waiting for someone from the News department to come find me for an interview.

The woman was in her early twenties, well dressed, and seemed a bit nervous. So I thought she was an interview subject for one of the shows. That is, until he mentioned that he was in the studios to intercept an on-air radio host.

“Is it a scheduled meeting? Does he know you’re here?” I asked. Maybe I’ve been watching too much TV, but the words “stalker” kept popping up in my mind.

“It’s a woman, not a man” said the fan with a soft smile. “And no, she doesn’t know I’m here. I brought her a gift.”

I’ve never heard of the host who was there to watch, but I also don’t listen to much radio or music for that matter. Words and images are my thing.

But I was amazed at the kind of attraction the presenter has to inspire someone to get up very early on a Sunday morning, travel any distance to bring them a gift in case they are out of the studios. Then there is the question of whether the presenter would be nice to have a stranger stalk him after turn and I accept the gift …

What words or deeds inspired this kind of love? Has the presenter ever stopped to wonder what part of his radio sound touched someone this way? Or was she just out there, getting on with her work and hoping that the public liked her enough that the announcer would renew her contract?

As is often the case on a busy day, I soon pulled the fan out of my mind and got down to business. Until I got home and checked my emails.

One of the emails was from a gentleman named Osborne. It reminded me that we met 15 years ago, in a taxi from Johannesburg to Nelspruit (it is a trip of 4 and a half hours, so conversation with fellow travelers was inevitable). He says that I told him that I am an assigned writer, that I write about family problems, and his feeling was that I had a passion for my craft.

“His inspiration led me to write a silly novel in 1995, which I have yet to publish,” Osborne writes.

I remember the trip, although the passage of time has stained many of the details. Most importantly, I don’t even know why my face stayed in Osborne’s mind, or what I told him that made him pick up the pen on the paper and write the novel.

But I am grateful that our meeting and the words we exchanged had a positive impact on his life, no matter how small that impact. I’m happy that when he saw me on TV, he went to the trouble of looking up my contact details online and sent me an email to let me know how much he appreciated us getting to know each other.

I am also aware that when you are in the business of sharing words, thoughts, and opinions with other people, it affects them in a way that you never fully understand. As you go about your business, writing to meet the next deadline, your words stay with readers. And sometimes these words change lives.

So as a writer / speaker and human being, how do your words impact your readers and the people you meet?