Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul by Jack Canfield

Author:Jack Canfield
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 978-1-4532-7580-1
Publisher: Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing
Published: 2010-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

Challenge Days

Shared joy is double joy.

Shared sorrow is half sorrow.

Swedish Proverb

My name is Tony. I always looked out for myself because I thought no one else would, and I thought it would always be that way. That changed the day I got out of class for something called Challenge Day.

The people running it had big hopes of helping us join together and making us leaders. I just wanted to get out of class. I figured that after signing in I would sneak out.

In the school gym, I found myself sitting in a big circle, face to face with a hundred students that no one could have paid me to spend the day with. I was keeping up my front, my cool, but I was kind of nervous. I’m used to either sitting hidden in the back of a classroom waiting for a break, or skipping school and hanging with the guys. I wasn’t used to not knowing what was going to happen.

I made fun of how a bunch of kids were dressed and of a girl who was fat. Some of the girls had worn pajamas and brought stuffed animals. Pretty stupid, I thought.

The day started with each of us standing up and saying our names into a microphone “loud and proud.” A bunch of kids were really shy, but since I rap sometimes, I acted really cool when it was my turn. No one knew there was a lump in my throat. You see, I’m from a tough neighborhood, and showing your weakness only makes you a target. I was a target when I was real young, both for my brothers and for the people who called themselves my friends.We sure didn’t know how to be friends, though. Fighting and putting each other down were a normal way of life.

Anyway, we started playing these games I thought were really childish. I hung back a little with my buddies, acting cool and not wanting to play like a little kid. After a couple of games, though, it didn’t seem like anyone else was hanging back, and they were all having a good time. I thought, “Why not me?” I have to admit that I was playing a little rough, but it beat sitting on the edge.

What happened next was almost unbelievable. Carl, one of the only guys who is more feared and respected than me at school, was helping one of the leaders demonstrate how to give hugs. Everyone was laughing at first, but it was getting harder and harder to put anyone down that day. The leaders kept teaching us to open our hearts and minds, to share our true feelings and to give put-ups instead of put-downs. It wasn’t what I was used to.

Then we did an exercise called “the power shuffle.” Before the game started, the leaders talked about oppression. “Yeah,” I thought, “like they really know what it’s like to be oppressed. Here I am, a young Latino growing up in a white society. I get

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