Jake for President

A couple weeks before school ended, Jake came home and told me he was thinking of running for Student Council Vice-President. I was a little surprised, but happy he was interested in trying something new. Seth asked him why he didn’t just run for president. Jake said a lot of people were running for president. After a little convincing from his dad, he decided to switch and run for president instead. A few hours later he had filled out his forms and completed the template the school gave him for a poster. The school had a primary election and Jake was one of the top four kids chosen for president.

Next came the hard part. He had to give a two-minute speech in front of the whole school. For those of you that know Jake, you know he isn’t super keen on getting up in front of people. However, this school year he has had to do several presentations, reports, speeches, etc. in front of his fifth grade class, which makes this new assignment not quite as scary. That evening he prepared a speech. It started out serious and then went to funny. Seth encouraged him to make the kids laugh. He began by saying he would do anything for the school…like one push-up and he did one push-up and then cheered really big for himself. Next he stood on a chair and did the same thing. Last he made a dice disappear from under a tissue, but really he just dropped it. It is hard to explain but it was pretty funny, even from a tough critic like me. He then went on to say how he would work hard for the school and so forth.

All morning long I thought about him. I was SO nervous. I kept thinking, “What if the kids don’t laugh?” “What if he freezes up in front of everyone?” A lot of similar thoughts went through my mind. I told his sisters that no matter what happened they had to laugh really loud. I wasn’t there but from what I heard from his sisters and his friends, he had everyone laughing. Apparently the students liked it because the next day they announced he had won the election. We were so excited for him. He will start his responsibilities next year as a sixth grader.

His responsibilities will include doing the morning announcements over the intercom and helping with a school project or two. Most importantly I was thrilled that he had the courage to get up in front of all those students and give it a shot, win or lose. Way to go Jake!