A girl with a theory. Two high school students with the intention of causing harm. Personal diaries becoming a beacon of hope. An awful tragedy slowly making a positive difference in the world.
Rachel Joy Scott thought that one person could start a chain reaction, little did she know she would be that person.
On September 10th, the students were introduced to Rachel’s Challenge.
“This is going to be a great program for the students, it will help them feel comfortable, cared about, and looked out for,” said guidance counselor, Ms. Stein.
As we learned at the emotionally-moving assembly, Rachel’s Challenge is a nationwide program that basically promotes positive energy and spreading small acts of kindness in hopes of starting a chain reaction.
The idea is to have the students run the program, having ideas and implementing them with the help of volunteer teachers to give our ideas the stamp of approval.
The students that will be leading the organization are called the “FOR Club” or “Friends of Rachel Club”. Freshman Mackenzie Protos spoke up at the first FOR club meeting, so I knew she was passionate about it.
“I just like the idea of being nice,” said Protos. “We don’t go out of our way for others enough, people don’t realize the little things mean the world to some.”
Rachel’s theory was: “If one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.”
Just reading this excerpt from her essay, knowing that we could and should act this way, it can make us feel slightly guilty. Her soul and intentions were taken away far too soon, but maybe we can pay her homage by living out her dream.
Protos, most likely along with others, is a visual person. She expressed that having color and brightness in decorations around our school would create a more welcoming, positive environment.
This would be a wonderful FOR club project to execute this year.
The day after the assembly, you could see the beginning of change like the leaves in early fall.
“The lollipops the next day was such a good sign!” said Ms. Stein.
Protos was surprised by the turnout of the FOR club sign up meeting
“There were more kids willing to make this change than I expected, it made me feel really happy.” said Protos.
The general concept is so simple: just be nice. It doesn’t cost you anything, it isn’t something you have to sign up for, it’s merely a way of acting. It will only benefit you to make this change because we’re all in this together so we might as well make it easier on ourselves.
At the FOR club assembly, we did a few warm up exercises to get comfortable. After the instructor asked us a few questions with our eyes closed, when our eyes were opened, you could physically feel the energy in the room shift (It probably helped that Nasha, our instructor, had the absolute most soothing voice ever). The room felt calm and welcoming. It was a feeling I’ve never had in school before.
If this challenge can make school feel like that every day, it would make students want to come to school more, or at least dread it less. It’s up to us to make this change now.
The proof that this program matters, and I experienced this firsthand, was when Protos told me,
“This interview made my day.”
There isn’t much more I could ask for.
