Day 9 - “We Called It a Fun Box”
Banneker Day 6
I am so, so proud of the Banneker kids. This semester has been a full to bursting with the highest of highs and the soul crushingest of lows. (That was terrible writing. I’ll fix it later.) Very different from my first fall semester, which was just a gradually descending and occasional uptick of monotony. The point is, I realized today that the emotion I’ve hardly ever felt in these past two years was pride. I wasn’t the best student in high school, but you’re recognized more often for things. Here, in limbo to the real world, nobody cares. It’s an important lesson and I’m glad I learned it early, but I do miss being proud. I’d get snatches of it when a teacher would point out how my paper was particularly good, but it’d always slip away when I went to my bad class. It’s been a long time since there’s been a ton of build up and an incredible payoff. Well, the drought stopped today.
I can’t stop looking at the paper they made. It’s on actual news print and it looks fantastic. It’s not to kiddy and it’s not trying to be too business like. It’s the perfect blend for a school paper.
That’s not to say that it’s perfect. Today we sat down at the table, about eight of us, and talked about what needed to be fixed and what needed to be done better for next time (specifically, not waiting until the last second and having Mrs. Brinkman have to do most of the work). But good lord, this looks ridiculously good. These kids did it. I get to beam at the stories. You don’t gloss over the stuff that still needs to be worked on, but man, it’s nice to sit back and applaud them.
Selfishly, it feels good that I played a role in it. It feels good that I was able to give them some skills they hadn’t had in a few years as someone savvy with InDesign. It feels good that I can make some points about layout and font and lines, they can take those and run with them, and I ended up wanting to shout about this product from the rooftops.
I’m going to mail my high school advisor a copy. I’m bringing one home to show my family this weekend. I’m keeping one at my desk. Because while I can get annoyed at how time drags on and how Sylvia can want to plan too far in advance for a school whose schedule is always changing and how sometimes everyone seems to forget that I’m really only supposed to be here until 4:45 or 5:00, it’s okay. For now, it’s okay. Because they did it.
When we were planning the next to issues I was sad to realize that my last day will likely be the 6th of December. They still have classes for two more weeks and I’ll be back home. Even more disappointing is the thought that I probably won’t be back in January. I don’t want to leave these kids and the wonderful Mrs. Brinkman. I don’t like the thought of being done with this program, and yet as I’m piecing together my schedule it’s hard to think of way that I’d still be able to come in on Tuesday afternoons.
That news writing class from last year was really excellent, because that combined with my high school experience, I have all these ideas and suggestions bubbling up. I brought up the idea of doing a fake press conference so everyone could get better at doing follow ups and helping each other go more in-depth. I also through out some ideas for satirical or funny bits in the paper (I called our “humor box” the “fun box” which was our old nickname for it. I miss that class.). I love that these things from my past are coming to DC to these bright, eager, talented kids.
For however much I get down on the time commitment and the metro and the walk and the unpredictability, I love that I get to be a part of this.
