John was beyond excited when he bounded off the bus a week ago to tell me that his class had nominated him to run for student council. When he was nominated by his third grade class, his teacher told him he was “too bad” and pulled his nomination. He was completely devastated and, quite honestly, so were we because it just didn’t make any sense. I welled up with tears when he told me he would get another chance in fourth grade and that “Mrs. B is going to let me do it!” Of course she is, buddy. You’re an amazing kid! What a difference a year makes.
He set straight to work brainstorming ideas for his campaign. He was to turn in a poster, provide some sort of handmade giveaway (no food or candy), and give a 1-minute election speech. We pondered ideas together and he wanted nothing to do with the things I thought were cute :-) Instead, this is where he landed…
As far as his handmade promotional item, he made mustaches on sticks and wrote “Vote John” on the back. The whole thing was silly and catchy and entirely him.
He practiced his little speech every night for the week before and really gave it his all. He was very confident going in, but we let him know that all you can do in things like this is give 110% because the results are ultimately outside of his control. And, if he doesn’t win, at least he will be left with no doubt in his mind that he tried his hardest and there will be no regrets or “if only I had…” moments. In the end, he did not win the election. But he was so happy he had the opportunity to run and we were proud of him nonetheless.
As luck would have it, another type of school leadership role he had been trying out for was announced that very same day… Safety Patrols. Guess who came bounding off the bus again, proudly sporting his new neon badge and hat?
He promptly proceeded to practice putting Whit in a head lock after he had “violated” the rule of no jumping on the sofa. And when I noted Whit’s straight face on his daily report (for talking….again), John very seriously and in his best man voice said “Mom, what are WE going to do about this very bad behavior?” He’s taking this role quite seriously at home. LOL.
xoxo
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