Page 63 of Through Quick and Quinn
7:44 p.m.
Totally.
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Note to self:
Quick and I went to go see Mr. Erickson today to tell him about our Seek & Speak idea and to get some feedback, and I wish I took a video of his response! He was so excited, probably even more so than I am. He literally hooted and sprung from his chair to hug us. He told us how proud he was, and to leave it to students to come up with an even better idea than the teacher’s. Ha ha!
Mr. Erickson knew all about message boards and volunteered to be the behind-the-scenes moderator. That way he will be the only one who can see the email addresses that are connected with usernames, so we won’t be in an awkward situation of having access to that. That made me feel so much better, because I know how important it is to Quick for all aspects of this to be anonymous. Score!
Quick and I are FaceTiming tonight to plan out the first semester. I think we are going to post a new topic every two weeks, so there’s time to dig but not so much time that it gets stale. We’re also going to brainstorm “mild” topics, as Quick likes to call them, because if we start off by dropping some major truth bombs that make people uncomfortable, no one will join in. I haven’t even started thinking of ideas yet, but it’s all good. I know we’ll figure it out. I’m so excited!
Okay, I’m off to make flyers, which Mr. Erickson said he will print and photocopy. He also said he would post them around the school so no one would see Quick and I doing it. I didn’t even think about that!
Oh! And right when we were leaving Mr. Erickson’s classroom, right when we walked outside, guess what we saw? A dragonfly! I freaked out, and Quick had no idea why. He looked at me like I had five heads. I couldn’t believe I had never told him about my connection with dragonflies or what they represented. How is that even possible? Anyway, heck yeah, that dragonfly’s right! Change is coming! Seek & Speak is going to be awesome!
…Q
Quick:
Here Goes Nothing
Throughout the early phases of planning Seek & Speak, the great majority of my conversations with Quinn were focused on just that. Once we decided to do it and had Mr. E’s support, we realized there was much more to getting it off the ground than merely flyers and a chat room. On that Friday of the second week of our senior year, we hammered out the bulk of the details at lunchtime.
Quinn surprised me by bringing in what she could harvest from our porch garden, which was meager but still felt satisfying to eat. Like an accomplishment. It was a good thing we still had regular lunches, though, because the green onions, three tiny radishes, and the four cherry tomatoes were not going to cut it. We munched away while Quinn spoke a mile a minute about all the agenda items she had written in her notebook.
She thought it was hugely important that we defined the mission of our project. She wanted to make sure we were both on the same page, and although no one else would really see the mission, we could always look back on it if we needed to. We discussed different ways of wording it, but it did not take very long for us to realize that we were just rephrasing it over and over. The mission was simple: To get our peers to dig. We fancied up the language a bit before she wrote it down, using words like “entice” and “evaluate” or something like that.
At first, we considered having a goal in terms of the number of people who would participate in Seek & Speak, but we decided to hold off on that. We agreed that we could revisit the idea once it got off the ground and we saw how it was going. I liked the idea of a growth goal, rather than a random number goal. So long as it was making progress, even if from just one person to five, that was a step in the right direction.
The topic of anonymity came up again. Not really about the participants, but more so about her and I remaining anonymous. Quinn mentioned that a major battle in life, for all humans, is the ego versus the spirit, and that the intentions behind work are just as important as the work itself. When she said that, it struck me as so profound that I made her say it again.
The intentions behind work are just as important as the work itself.
The purpose of Seek & Speak was not for our names to be spoken. There was a possibility that Seek & Speak would gain traction, and having our names tied to it would lend to the ego. The last thing either one of us wanted was to be in the spotlight, and it was our hope that Seek & Speak would be. Our intention was based in spirit, and we agreed that if it were to become about us, it would muddy the waters.
Granted, we knew there would be criticism of some sort. There were always haters. We were as mentally prepared for it as we could be. The only thing we could do was work through it together. We didn’t even know what the criticism would look like, anyway. Would it be rude comments? Would it be mocking flyers posted in jest or in retaliation? We had no clue. We made a point of acknowledging that the criticism to come was not the reason for our anonymity, but it probably was. At least for me.
Right before lunch ended, we tested the QR code and Quinn squealed when she saw that it worked perfectly. It led to the chat board and the user could create any username he or she wanted. The bimonthly question would be posted at the top, and that would be that. The only thing left to do was to decide on that first topic. We wanted it to be a controversial topic, but something mainstream. Something that was already a part of the common narrative. It couldn’t be too shocking. It almost felt like it needed to be so light that it was almost funny. Something that would appeal to high schoolers.
Turned out that was tougher than we thought. We must have texted about it a dozen different times that weekend. By Sunday night, though, we had to bite the bullet. We were scheduled to post first thing that Monday morning. So, we narrowed it down to three, rolled the dice, and the last thing I texted her was, “Here goes nothing.”
Of course her response was something that ended in three exclamation points.
Seek & Speak!
What’s the Truth Anyway?
Dig to Decide!
Do you ever wonder about the unknowns?
About truths? About lies?
Do you ever hear something and instinctively agree with it? Disagree with it?
Do you ever defend the narrative?
