“Tis the season to be jolly fa la la la la la la la laaaaaaa.” Ahh Charity Ball season; the most wonderful time of the year.
The girl sitting next to you winces as she hears her stomach growling and hopes that she isn’t distracting anyone in class. She cringes at the irony of this as her mind races away from her math lesson to her lunch, one she knew that she would have to enjoy because she wouldn’t get much to eat until the next Monday at school.
He folds up his clothes neatly, placing them in his tattered suitcase. One wheeless side gets caught in the sidewalk crack, and the quiet kid in your science class strains as he drags the suitcase containing his life towards his next home. That is, if the everchanging places where he and his mother lived could even be considered homes.
When was the last time that you looked at someone and saw a person before you saw the stereotypes? How often do you see the people begging for money on the streets and see an addict instead of a person? It is so easy to forget that the people who we encounter everyday are just that: people. We cast them as a type because it is easier for us to see them two-dimensionally than to get to know them as a person. It is easier to think of him as “that boy who doesn’t talk in science” than to be proved wrong and learn that he is so much more. He is the boy who suffers from housing insecurity but still makes straight A’s because he wants to be the first in his family to go to college. He is kind, smart, and tells the best jokes. Despite this, people judge him based off of a first impression, and that judgement comprises their entire image of him.
One thing that I have always loved about Enloe students is that they never take the easy way out. In C&C freshman year, Ms. Price and Mr. Shuford emphasized that we are all unique pieces of the puzzle. Throughout high school, I have come to find a welcoming and accepting family at Enloe; it is a community which does not place me in a box based on who I seem to be, but rather listens to me as I express myself and try to define who I am and who I want to be.
Charity Ball Season is the most wonderful time of the year due to not only the money we raise, but also the lives that are impacted. As we help Urban Ministries make a difference everyday, they help students by challenging them to see each individual in a positive light believing that they, as people, are capable of achieving great things. This year, after more than $120,000 is raised, I hope Enloe students extend the Charity Ball season for the rest of their lives. I wish that they exemplify Urban Ministry’s mission of hope and see other people as simply people who are capable of amazing things.
Alex Johnson
Enloe Senior