Happy Birthday (Part 2)

So, we gave Mrs. Read her own little birthday celebration. We surprised her when she came into the cafeteria with the birthday cake and the card (signed by the entire club). When she walked into the room, the club started singing happy birthday to her. Well, as soon as we started singing, some of the other students at the conference wanted to join in, and eventually the entire room, more than 600 hundred students, began to sing to her. It was actually pretty cool to watch. Then, she blew out the imaginarily lit candles on her cake (didn't think it was a smart idea to have fire in a room with 600+ kids). I forgot to get down the text of the card, but it said something to the effect of "Thank you so much for all that you've done for Model UN, and you have been the best advisor possible, Happy Birthday."

Happy Birthday (Part 1)

I tried submitting this last night, but for some reason it didn't post, so I'll rewrite it. So, today was our first Model United Nations conference of the year, SEMMUNA. Our sponsor, Mrs. Read, had several months ago planned a trip to Chicago during that same weekend, but out of duty to us she skipped her vacation. And far from being resentful, she's been an amazing sponsor. She's fought to keep the administration off our backs for club fees, she's helped with logistics, and she's given great ideas and advice for the club. Well, as Mrs. Read and I were preparing for the conference and solving a last minute crisis, she mentioned her birthday was a few days ago, and she had just had a rotten day. We understood how much Mrs. Read had sacrificed to help us out, and so our club decided to make it up to her. I went out yesterday to get her a birthday cake, and I hand made her a card. I'm going to get the entire model UN club to sign it, and we will present it to her at the conference.

Loose Change

Well, I have a larger act of kindness in its planning stages, but until that, here's another one of my little projects. Well, it started in eighth  grade, when our class was reading the novel Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli. One of my favorite passages was,

“Throughout the day, Stargirl had been dropping money. She was the Johnny Appleseed of loose change: a penny here, a nickel there. Tossed to the sidewalk, laid on a shelf or bench. Even quarters. 

"I hate change," she said. "It's so . . . jangly."
"Do you realize how much you must throw away in a year?" I said.
"Did you ever see a little kid's face when he spots a penny on a sidewalk?” 

And it stuck with me. Whenever I go to the store to buy something, I keep the change in my wallet until the opportune moment arrives.  Sometimes I'm on a street corner, or walking alone in a school hallway, or even just outside the grocery store.  When no one is looking, I drop a coin on the ground, always heads up (because, of course, it won't be lucky otherwise). Today, as left the restaurant after a dinner with my grandparents, I left a penny and a quarter outside the front door, in as dry an area as I could find. 

Well, that's it for today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll start up with my new, mystery project.

Tag Days

So, I just thought I'd muse on the Tag Days fundraiser I helped out for this weekend, for the school districts music programs. It started Saturday morning at 7:00, we went out to "beg" for money outside of Einstein Bagel. Now, we were asking people for money right before their morning coffee, which probably wasn't an ideal situation. A lot of people straight out ignored us, turned the corner when they saw us, or even sprinted inside, just to avoid talking to us. It was actually pretty funny, the lengths people would go just so they didn't have to say "no" to our faces. But still, a large number of people gave donations for the music program. Mothers with young children, senior citizens, collge students, and business men all gave to help out our music program. Even one of the workers at Einstein Bagle, a young guy who used to play saxophone for North Farmington, gave us some money. It was really nice to see people, often who were in a hurry or looked like they couldn't spare much, give money to support music. Our donations ranged from $20 to a few cents, and every penny went to a good cause. Not only do students involved in the arts do better in acedemics, but a strong music program can help unite a community, and give it a shared sense of identity. 

My laptop

So, this time I was on the receiving end of a kindness, so I thought I'd share. Last Thursday I brought my laptop to school so I could work on an English essay during class. I don't have a real case for it, so I kept it in a brown paper grocery bag. Well, I brought it outside with me as I was waiting to get picked up from school, then my mom came and I went home. At about 5:00 I started looking for my laptop; I couldn't find the brown paper bag I was keeping it in. Then I realized that I left it outside of the school. Well, we dashed over, but I was sure it was lost forever: either someone had stolen it or it was damaged. While, when we pulled up to the school, I looked for it outside, but nothing was there. Thankfully, the school doors were still open (they are almost always locked by 4:00), so was the office. When I walked in my laptop was right on the front desk; someone had turned it in. It would have been so easy for someone to take it, and they probably would never have been found out. Yet, out of the kindness of someone heart, they turned in the laptop to make sure it found its way back to me, with no expectation of reward or anything. That just brightened my day little, not to mention it saved me several hundred dollars for a new computer!

Fun with the TSA

This is nothing too impactful, but i thought I'd share it. The other day my sister and I went down to the airport to pick up our dad, who was coming in from California. My dad wasn't due until 8:30 pm, but since my mom didn't want me driving so far in the dark, we left a little before 7:00 pm. We got there about 7:40, with nothing to do. So, we ran around the airport, got a drink at one of the tiny coffee shops, and ran up and down the moving sidewalks (just a little). Well, all around the airport are TSA agents, security workers, and tons of miscellaneous other employees. No one makes eye contact with them or says so much as "Hello", which is understandable given the massive security increases at airports. Still thought, airport employees do not seem to love their jobs. So, Hunter and I spend a half hour walking around the airport, saying hello to everyone we saw. We even struck up a few conversations with TSA security agents, who seemed shocked anyone was willing to talk to them. Most of them came away smiling. Fortunately, security didn't think our behavior was so suspicious it warranted detainment!