Oh high school… you truly were the wonder years. I attended a catholic high school everyday wearing a school uniform. However, my uniform was a bit different. By the end of my freshmen year I was the girl who always wanted to be “different” in high school. Uniformity wasn’t my thing. I was raised to embrace what makes us unique individuals.

While I was on spring break my freshman year I decided to sit down and read our uniform guidelines. To my surprise it simply stated we had to wear a white button down blouse, navy blue pants, dress shoes and a navy blue vest. It didn’t specify the material, designer, or fit. Brilliant!, I exclaimed! My mother was a seamstress and I had the clever idea to make my own uniform. The first day after spring break I walked into school in a white ruffled button down blouse, satin navy blue bell bottoms, Doc Martens with a chunky heal and a satin navy blue vest. Everyone LOVED it, well maybe not so much the principle, but I was technically in dress code. From that day forth I had a new “uniform” and it caught on.

By my sophomore year it was my hearts desire to break down the high school clicks, you know the “cool kids”,  the “nerds”,  the “rebels”, the “band kids”, the “jocks”, the “cheerleaders” and so on. I wanted nothing more then for everyone to be friends. Some how my unique uniform had let me break the click barrier and I got to know so many people in our school on a totally different level. I was able to see how amazing they were, but because of the clicks they were missing out on knowing each other. I prayed about this often.

Finally by my senior year I felt God giving me a mission – To Say Hello To Everyone I Passed In The Halls Everyday.  I thought to myself, this was crazy and never going to work. But as I walked into school my first day of senior year I put a smile on my face and started saying hello to everyone. It didn’t matter if it was a freshman, a nerd, a jock, a teacher or a rebel, I said hello to them all. For the longest time I got strange looks, heard whispering behind me and was often met with the sarcastic response of, “what put you in such a good mood“.  But with lots of prayers and trust in God I kept doing it. Slowly but steadily more and more people began to respond with a smile and a hello. I would then hear them say a genuine hello to the next person as well. I could see it beginning to work. Painstakingly slow, but it was working.

By the end of my senior year the school halls had made a 180 degree change. I would walk down the halls and people were saying hello to me before I could even say hello to them, it was AMAZING! No, not everyone was best friends but everyone was smiling at each other, being kind to each other and laughing with each other… not at each other. It was different. The clicks had started to break down and it really showed in our senior class. The class that had started out with the worst reputation our freshman year turned out to be and amazing class our senior year.

That year I learned if I do even the smallest thing for God, He can turn it into something beyond my wildest dreams.