Two dollars, a postcard, and a wad of paper
Feelings are heavy.
Hunter, a FFA member from North Carolina, is able to share himself, feel the weight of others, and take action to heal others. Two dollars, a postcard, and a wad of paper, to inspire me this past couple of weeks and into the rest of my year.
Known for Cheerwine and red hot dogs, North Carolina, the State Officer Team, and State Staff welcomed me into the state of rub based and vinegar based BBQ. We arrived to the hotel after hanging with Middle Schoolers at a Leadership Development Event contest and being blessed with the opportunity to visit the International Civil Rights Museum.
Walking down the hall of the Hotel near Greensboro, North Carolina (known for its substantial and progressive activist that pushed equality in the Civil Rights Movement) I noticed Hunter chatting with Kenzie. The day before, I had briefly met Hunter during a mix and mingle opportunity before the opening of the North Carolina Mega Conference. At this conference, members (Freshman through Seniors) congregate for a wide variety of conferences. 212 and 360 leadership conferences, State Officer Candidate Spring Training, Over the Top senior leadership training, and Chapter Officer leadership training for Chapter Presidents and Chapter Vice Presidents in regards to delegate business for North Carolina FFA. Students challenged themselves to uphold this MEGA conference theme: "History in the Making".
NC MEGA Conference
We met and chatted for a bit, but that had been the majority of the conversation. It wouldn't had been til I met Hunter in the hallway that I would soon discover his gift.
I spent my time chillin' in the 360 conference! There we learned about how we as FFA members can be agents of change through Relationship Building, Trust, Purpose, and Collaboration. After each session, we had time to eat cookies out in the hall, get some water, take a few pictures, and have a chat or two. Needing a quick walk, I headed over to the other side of the hotel. There Hunter and Kenzie stood.
Hunter said "hello" and we chatted for a bit. I don't remember what we got on the topic of, but as Kenzie chatted with me, Hunter fiddled into his pocket. He pulled out his wallet and handed me two dollars.
I immediately tried to hand it back, not understanding why he was paying me. I wasn't anything special and I definitely didn't want members to start tipping me for being around them. I miss understood Hunter after he continuously insisted and Kenzie clarified: "He is Jewish, it is the Sabbath, it would rude if you didn't take it." Still holding the two dollars in my hand, I sincerely thanked him as he said: "I want to thank you for being here! This means a lot to us. I want to give you this. Please take it."
You wanna talk about "History in the Making"? When Hunter walked away, I noticed the Yarmulke he was wearing. To my surprise and utter joy, Hunter wasn't untruthful. Through his actions and kind words, the way he interacted with others, it was known that he had a strong faith and wasn't afraid of sharing it. He was making history just by being proud of his religion in our organizational setting. It made me smile, and quite frankly, inspired.
Later, Hunter would see me around the same spot as before. He stopped me and handed me two postcards he purchased from the store.
He explained to me again that he wanted me to take them, but he had a task with these post cards.
"With one, can you write a message to my chapter? They would appreciate that." I obliged, excited to do it!
"With the other one, give it to someone that you feel needs it." He continued by sharing that the moment he entered the conference, he felt as if someone in this conference is suffering. Some type of sadness or stress that has been weighing on them. My mind immediately shifted to the 400 members in the conferences, the many hands shaken, the laughs/memories already shared. Most seemed happy. Was I needing to be more aware?
"Write a message to someone, and give it to them to lift them up."
It was cool to see how Hunter was so in tune with the environment around him. Not everyone is able to sense the feelings around them, maybe this is caused by being too concerned with their own feelings to really fully engage with others. I've been there and still continue to be every once in a while. What a mature thought and reminder to share from someone who is so young. Sometimes, we all need to be more like Hunter.
Are we missing the opportunity to bringing healing and joy into others lives by focusing souly on our own "suffering"?
How can we zen all our thoughts and feelings to focus more on our conviction and service to other people?
I asked him: "what do you mean by suffering?"
He explained a wad of paper. I may butcher this story a bit, but the way Hunter explained it was extremely convicting, especially in my community today.
"People are like wads of paper. When you wad it up and dump water on it, it starts to wilt. But when that wad of paper is covered with some type of plastic or adhesive, something filling the gaps, we are able to protect that paper from the water."
He explained that people are susceptible to suffering easily. Suffering can take form as sadness caused by something environmental or out of their control. We all have suffered in some way-whether it is divorce, maybe feeling not enough, depression of some sort, physical sickness, or the million other forms of suffering manifesting itself in our heart and playing tricks on our thoughts.
People can be that adhesive for people, people can be that plastic, people can be that covering but it starts with simple actions that brighten there day. Maybe taking time to disregard my own stress to give a post card to someone I noticed was suffering. We don't even need to know with what or why, but dropping our own suffering and focusing on others might be exactly what both sides need.
This concept is too close to home for many of us.
https://www.chicoer.com/article/NA/20180314/NEWS/180319863
The link above is an article written about a day many California State University of Chico Students will never forget. Even as a National FFA Officer, away from home and school, my heart still hurts for what happened March 14th, 2018 at 8:35 am on campus.
The article explains further, details that I can't do much justice or feel like I am the person to type it.
I had coffee with a friend not to long after. He shared with me that the professor came up in front of the class and said: "(Blank) was in this class." My friend continued by saying: "I had no idea who he was, never seen him." Granted, there is more than 200 students in this class and they had two different majors. But I couldn't help but wonder who talked to the student, who was his friends, did he have a go to person in that class and if so how did they feel to find out what happened? Did they feel like there was something more they could have done?
Since the incident, our campus has been hurting. But it is a reminder to all of us that we need to take a piece out of Hunter's book. Maybe we can solve each others suffering by leaning on one another? If we could halt our suffering in our heart and pay attention to others, could that solve both of our problems? What could have happened?
Simple concepts: share who we are, feel the weight of others, and take action to heal others. Two dollars, a postcard, and a wad of paper. Is that all it really takes?