Our daughter is passionate about few things in life. One of them is giving her all to an endeavor she undertakes whether in school or personal life.
Her commitment is unwavering. This was made abundantly clear when she as an officer of a local TED chapter in school organized an outing for 30 odd students to visit UC Berkeley where the largest regional gathering was to take place this weekend.
So she set out to plan this well in advance. Sponsors were recruited and tickets were sold to willing students. A transport plan was laid out to handle the logistics of going to the University campus where TEDx was being held and yours truly was recruited to chaperone the lot. Another teacher from school was also on the docket to sign up as an additional authority that traveled with us.
Last minute they find that the teacher cannot make it. Then comes the next blow. The bus organized for this event was no longer an option because it was sourced by the School District. So plan B. Get a private bus company and kids could travel on that bus. So get on the phone and negotiate a trip to and from.
Done. She locked it all down the night before the trip and was feeling good when late word from the school authorities put a kibosh on that plan. School indicated that there was still a liability issue and that kids could not go saying they were from the High School. You are on your own is effectively what she was told at literally the 11+ hour.
Feeling personally responsible for the enthusiasm she had generated among the students, she finally broke down and called my wife and me. We tried to bolster her spirits and kept advising to not lose hope. She rallied after that low and texted, emailed and called all those that signed up to come to a local train stop so we could still continue, but on a train. All set. We show up at the local train stop to board the BART that would take us to Berkeley and guess what?
The entire BART system with no warning was completely out. Down. No word on their website but we got an inkling listening to the local news channel on our way there. My daughter not losing her compassion for her student family now was beside herself and asked me as the driver as to what option we had. She suggested we could still carpool. Without any hesitation I seconded that idea and asked if she could scramble some more cars so all of us could still go. She did and some parents jumped in with a true community spirit to help out.
Through all this the kid lived the maxim of 'plan for the worst and hope for the best'. What was outside her control and could have gone wrong, did. In spite of all those down moments she persevered and made that trip to the X anniversary of TEDxBerkeley a memorable one.
Bravo!
Her commitment is unwavering. This was made abundantly clear when she as an officer of a local TED chapter in school organized an outing for 30 odd students to visit UC Berkeley where the largest regional gathering was to take place this weekend.
So she set out to plan this well in advance. Sponsors were recruited and tickets were sold to willing students. A transport plan was laid out to handle the logistics of going to the University campus where TEDx was being held and yours truly was recruited to chaperone the lot. Another teacher from school was also on the docket to sign up as an additional authority that traveled with us.
Last minute they find that the teacher cannot make it. Then comes the next blow. The bus organized for this event was no longer an option because it was sourced by the School District. So plan B. Get a private bus company and kids could travel on that bus. So get on the phone and negotiate a trip to and from.
Done. She locked it all down the night before the trip and was feeling good when late word from the school authorities put a kibosh on that plan. School indicated that there was still a liability issue and that kids could not go saying they were from the High School. You are on your own is effectively what she was told at literally the 11+ hour.
Feeling personally responsible for the enthusiasm she had generated among the students, she finally broke down and called my wife and me. We tried to bolster her spirits and kept advising to not lose hope. She rallied after that low and texted, emailed and called all those that signed up to come to a local train stop so we could still continue, but on a train. All set. We show up at the local train stop to board the BART that would take us to Berkeley and guess what?
The entire BART system with no warning was completely out. Down. No word on their website but we got an inkling listening to the local news channel on our way there. My daughter not losing her compassion for her student family now was beside herself and asked me as the driver as to what option we had. She suggested we could still carpool. Without any hesitation I seconded that idea and asked if she could scramble some more cars so all of us could still go. She did and some parents jumped in with a true community spirit to help out.
Through all this the kid lived the maxim of 'plan for the worst and hope for the best'. What was outside her control and could have gone wrong, did. In spite of all those down moments she persevered and made that trip to the X anniversary of TEDxBerkeley a memorable one.
Bravo!
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