New Places, New Things

Years ago when I was teaching 4th grade, we had reward parties for students who met their reading goals. I'm not going to get into how I feel about the parties themselves, but after mixing it up and trying several different types of parties we tried something new. We gave each student a cup full of vanilla ice cream and a can of root beer, and we put a movie up on the SmartBoard. At the time, I remember telling the story of my girls' reactions. I had four girls who qualified for the reward and none of them had ever had a root beer float before, but they were elated! It seemed unfathomable to me that this favorite treat of my son's childhood was so new to them. One of them exclaimed, "I'm going to have these for my birthday this year!" The entire experience was eye opening to me. We take such small and simple experiences in our lives for granted, forgetting about how lucky we are to have them.

Today something similar happened. Now I work with at-promise teenage girls in middle and high school. A colleague and I travelled with four of our girls to the state capitol today, and what a trip it was. A six hour drive from Ft. Myers to Tallahassee, we set out this morning and stopped for lunch about midway. About a half hour before we planned to stop, we asked the girls what they would like to have for lunch. Within reason, it was pretty much their choice. We were met with responses like "I don't know" and "Can we go to McDonald's?" These responses I believe, are due to a simple lack of exposure to everything that's out there. When we finally settled on Steak n' Shake, mostly out of convenience and  excitement over milkshakes, one of the girls just pointed to the photo on the front of the menu and said, "I want this." Simple. Done. She never even looked inside the menu (and yes, she can read). When we arrived in Tallahassee and checked into the hotel, the reactions were priceless. My favorite comment was when my co-worker asked the girls what they thought of the rooms- if they were okay, and one of them answered, "Yes! I wish I could have this as my room back home."

We went to the evening social event where the girls had fun, and on the way back to the hotel we stopped for ice cream at Cold Stone. Three of the four of them had never been there either, and there was a lot of confusion about how to order their ice cream. They just selected one of the signature combinations and one of them just ordered vanilla ice cream with peanut butter cups. Quite frankly, I hadn't been to a Cold Stone in years (it's overrated if you ask me), but it struck me how unfamiliar they were with the whole idea of mix-in ice cream stores. All day we had been talking about the second night out dinner, which is girls' choice- anywhere they want in Tallahassee. They have still yet to decide, mostly I think, because they don't even know what could possibly be out there.

It may sound like I'm criticizing or shaming my students, but that is not my intention at all. The point I'm trying to drive home, besides be thankful for all you have, is how much I love experiencing new things with young people. I love working for an organization that can provide these unique opportunities for students. Tomorrow, our student ambassadors will be attending the "Rally in Tally" where they will have several important meetings. They will meet with a senator, two state representatives and several aides to give speeches about how attending our school has impacted their lives and why the legislature should continue to fund our program with state dollars. They will also tour the capitol building including the senate chamber, tour the governor's mansion, and attend a press conference. It will be another day of firsts, for all of them. And I can't wait to experience it all with them.