I walked into Children’s Learning Center last Wednesday (St. Pattie’s Day) with my friend Krista not knowing what to expect. We knew we were supposed to work with children, but that was about it.

The manager told us we’d been working in different rooms. The first room was full of 1 and 2-year-olds.  I breathed a sigh of relief when Krista volunteered to stay in that room. I can’t change a diaper to save my life, and I definitely prefer little kids who already have learned to talk.

The manager dropped me off in a room with 4-year-olds and with in 30 seconds, someone was crying. Their pre-school teacher was getting the kids, all decked out in St. Pattie’s gear, lined up to go to breakfast.  A boy in a green stripped shirt (who I later found out is named Nick) cut the only girl in purple (Lakea) in line because she wasn’t wearing green. Lakea’s teacher had offered her a different shirt, but Lakea was adamant about staying in her purple outfit.

Lakea cried all the way down the hall and was still pouting when I kneeled next to her at the kids’ table. I figured the best way to make her happy was just to distract her.

“I like your hair!” I said to her.

She peered out at me behind a mop of golden brown ringlets. “Thanks.” She paused, trying to decide whether she should talk to me. “My mommy did my hair today! She doesn’t do my brothers’ hair because he’s a boy. My brother is eight. He plays baseball…”

From then on, she could not stop talking to me. When we got back to the classroom, she asked me to play with her, and she got mad at me when I left her to go watch other kids. She wanted to hold my hand wherever I went, and she tried to sit on my lap during circle time.

Inexperienced with kids, I was a little baffled. This girl barely knew me, yet she was already attached to me like a little barnacle.  My best friend Martha calls it ignorant affection. And it’s true; little kids don’t know that you’re supposed to take the time to get to know someone before you act affectionate.

But there’s something so refreshing about the way Lakea acted. She wasn’t careful or standoffish. She met me, she liked me, and that was all there was to it.

I think we can all learn something from Lakea’s friendliness.

After wallowing in self-pity and frustration at my lack of success for over 48 hours, my dad finally sat me down for a talk.

I was expecting an inspirational pep talk. Usually my dad’s pep talks are really sweet and full of praise. This was no pep talk. This was a get-it-together talk.

Here’s what stuck with me. He said “you treat every grade and competition as a referendum on who you are.”

I’ve been told my whole life not to judge myself on my accomplishments, but rather who I am and what I fight for. I guess I’ve always pretended to hear the message, but never really took it to heart. I guess I have never really been challenged enough to see how I handled failure. When I didn’t fail, it was easy to build my self-esteem on things I had accomplished. If I won a writing contest, I could consider myself a great writer. If I won a citzenship award, I could consider myself a good person.

As it turns out, when you fail, you have to rethink things. You have to rebuild your self-esteem based on different qualifications. It’s really challenging, and I consider it a ongoing goal for my life.

How do you react when you fail at something? Please leave a comment.

[For those of you who don't know, Showtime is Lawrence High's variety show where students audition songs in various groups.]

Every year when the list is posted, cacophony ensues. First come grunts and shuffling feet, pushing to see the list first, and then comes wave of elated screams, barely audible whispers, and silent tears.

Inside this cornocopia of emotions, it’s hard to know how to behave. Is it okay to express happiness when people around you are upset? Is it okay to feel frustrated when others are elated?

The answer is yes…sort of.

It’s always been my rule to allow myself an intial reaction, but afterword, control my emotions in front of people. Of course, once I’m in the car, I can groan and tear-up to my heart’s desire. But while I’m in a room with other people, I make it a point to give congratulations where they are due. After all, we all worked really hard to get to this point, and from there on, it was subjective.

Graciousness is a challenging virtue to upkeep, especially when you’re angry, but it’s probably one of the most important. How we behave in adversity tells a lot about who we are.

I just came out of AP Physics, a class I’ve been struggling with all year long. But today was different.

My teacher was writing a problem on the board with about 12 steps, and suddenly I had a breakthrough. I figured out a way to do it in 2 steps. I tapped my friend Brittany on the shoulder, asking for a confirmation that I was right. She encouraged me to share my theory with the class.

I raised my shaking hand in the air to be called on, and miraculously, when I tried to speak, the words came out how I meant them to. After double and triple-checking my theory, my teacher and the class determined that I was right!

I know I shouldn’t feel like I have to prove myself all the time, but I was starting to worry that people in the class thought I wasn’t very good at physics. I’m probably being paranoid, but here’s the deal: after I figured that out, the physics supergeniuses turned around to look at me and they smiled. I had impressed them, and it was an incredible feeling.

In fact, you know what it felt like? It was a 500 Days of Summer “You Make My Dreams” moment. I totally felt like Tom Hansen, ready to high-five anyone I met. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch this video.

Hall and Oates’ ”You Make My Dreams”  is the perfect feel-good jam. But 500 Days of Summer’s  Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes it to the next level in this scene, starting with his adorable smile and ending with a full-blown dance sequence.

Even if you’ve had the worst day ever, I guarantee this will make you smile.

Have your own feel-good jam? Leave a comment, because I plan to put together a top 10 list soon!

But instead of distressing, I need to de-stress. If I stay in this cranky mood, I’ll never have the energy to finish everything I need to get done.  So I need a plan to turn this day (month?) around.

No matter how much homework I have tonight, I plan to do one of these five pick-me-ups:

1) Work out: Gotta love those endorphins. It’s always hard to get myself on the treadmill, but once I’m there, I almost always enjoy it. A 30-minute workout is great right when I get home from school because it’s really hard to go straight from school to homework.
2) Drink a smoothie: Yum. I usually throw about 4 frozen mango chunks, 10 frozen strawberries, 1/4 cup of OJ and half a cup of milk in the blender, and then I add more of each ingredient to taste. It’s refreshing and healthy, and the Vitamin-C boosts my immune system.
3) Watch reality TV: I’ll admit I have a bit of an obsession. Between The Bachelor, American Idol, Launch My Line and all the awesome Food Network competitions, I’m set pretty much every day of the week. It’s a nice escape– it’s real drama you get to watch but don’t have to deal with.
4) Wear a favorite item of clothing: I really like my new purple high tops from Ryz.com (my aunt’s company!) , and with black skinny jeans and a cool shirt, it could definitely boost my mood.
5) Rock out to ridiculous music: ‘90s boy bands usually do the trick. I also jam to Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA, but don’t tell anyone!

What do you do to relax when you’re stressed?  Please leave a comment below!

Charity Navigator has various top ten lists (including the top ten great charities with the low paid CEOs), categories of charities, and browse function that shows each charity’s rank from 1-4 stars.

When looking for a charity, consider the following tips to help you choose a charity:

1) Follow an interest. I have an interest in media, so I might give to a public radio station.

2) Go local. Local charities don’t pay large salaries to CEO’s, and the money goes back to people in your community.

3) Consider giving non-cash gifts. Book and food drives are great for donating old and new items straight to the peopel who need them.

4) Say no to phone solicitations. Telemarkers get to keep a portion of the money you give if you donate via phone.

5) Don’t spread yourself too thin. Pick a few charities you love, and give them the resources they need to suceed.  If you develop a solid relationship with a charity, someday you may get more influence in its proceedings.

Remember, giving to charity is tax deductable; just another great reason to give!

It calculates the number of times words like great, happy, and excited are used in statuses versus words like bad, angry, and annoyed, and the difference between these values creates the GNP for the day.

As you can see in the diagram, the happiest days of the year are major holidays. Look at the major peaks. Other than holidays, we aren’t a very happy culture. I think we should change that. I am tired of reading bummed out Facebook statuses, and I’m even more tired of posting them myself. Now, every time I post I am going to think of what I am doing to our GNP!

If this topic interests you, check out Wefeelfine.org . This international site promotes a book that compares happiness among regions, genders, age groups and more by studying words used in weblogs. On the site you can see demo pages from the book. The introduction reads “This is a book about people. Blogs are just the medium.” It’s really well organized and has absolutely gorgeous graphics. [Note: I have no affiliation with these people, I just think the idea is really cool.]

Remember to save those sad & angry posts for big problems and bring up our GNP. Someone is watching.

Happy posting!

While I think we should all be appreciating the great things in our lives 24/7, it seems almost impossible. It’s hard  not to complain about doing 18 college applications or having to clean my room.

But the truth is, I’m lucky that my parents can afford to send me to college, and I am also lucky that I have a room to clean. Thanksgiving makes you think about these things.

This year, the speeches centered around a college theme because it feels like the most major change we will experience in the next year.

However,  the speech that grabbed me the most was my sister’s speech. It began with “I am NOT thankful that my sister is going to college, because we’re all going to miss her.”

Thank you, I thought. I am thankful that someone else is as scared as I am about this change.  I can’t believe that a year from now, I’ll be living in some strange city talking to people I have never met. What if I am not even home for Thanksgiving?

This year, I am very thankful for technology so I can call, text, email and Facebook message my family whenever, wherever. I just hope they won’t have to text me a picture of Thanksgiving dinner.

Not at LHS at 6:50 a.m. when it’s cold out. If zero hour is about to start, I’ve come to expect that the door will get slammed in my face yet again. If I am 4 inches from the door, sometimes someone will let out an exasperated sigh and pass the door off to me as he or she heads to class.

I’ve given up on holding doors for my fellow classmates. I used to do it just to show them some common courtesy. But lately, I’ve given up. I decided it was just too early to be nice.

Yesterday, as I approached the main door, I noticed something peculiar.  Someone was holding open the door for me.

Calvin Morgan not only held the door for me when I was at least 5 feet away, but he also said “Good Morning.” Imagine that.

You may think I’m being sarcastic, but I’m really not. I really appreciate it.  It was one of the highlights of my day yesterday. Given, yesterday was a pretty awful day. But still. We could all take an example from this simple act of courtesy.

It’s never too early to be nice. Someone may slam the door in your face tomorrow, but it won’t be me.

Personally, I’m tired hearing teenagers rant about all their problems. So the last question on the math test was totally unfair. So what? It’s not the sign of the apocalypse, it’s one math problem. Don’t get me wrong- I can unecessarily freak out with the best of them. It just doesn’t make me feel any better.

They say doing good deeds makes you feel better about yourself. I’m hoping there’s a transitive property of kindness: if I catch someone being nice to someone else, that makes me nice, yes? Probably not. But seeing others do something selfless is insipiring. That’s my goal here. I want to inspire you to do good deeds; I want to inspire myself.

Because doing a good deed means doing something without trying to gain benefits, I will have to catch people in the act.

When you least suspect it, a 5’2″ nosy blogger could jump out of nowhere and ask you why you were just kind to someone for no reason. That’s right. You could be the subject of the next Slice of Nice post.

If you are a victim of niceness, shoot me an email at samanthaschwartz@sunflower.com. I’d like to hear your side of the story, and then I’ll hunt down the perp.