Junior Coach Serey is a fourth grade student at Crestline Elementary School. His essay was selected among 43 finalists for the Junior Coach essay contest. Below is his essay answering the question, “How does being a Junior Coach help you at school or home?”
There are many reasons why Playworks is important to me. I believe that it is important to have acts of kindness everywhere a person goes. Helping others is an important act of kindness. It seems like there is so much negativity going on in our world that the amount of kindness seems to be limited. Playworks not only helps the kids at Crestline but it helps me be a better person. I learn more and more about myself. I think that this is a great thing for kids to be involved in because life only gets harder and the pressure feels like it’s never going to go away.
I wanted to be a part of Playworks because for the first few years at Crestline I felt alone and picked on. I got bullied many times. I found myself playing at recess alone many times and I never wanted to go to school because that part was really hard. My mom told me that it will get better and for me not to give up on people. I wanted to make sure that no one had to feel the way I did.
Playworks is a unique opportunity for all the students to be involved one way or another. It could be giving or receiving help or friendship from people you wouldn’t normally think would have the time of day for you.
I feel that at our age things should be fun and we should be kids and enjoy life, but sometimes pressures are so much with homework, learning and then being alone or bullied makes being a kid very hard. I like playing with the younger kids. It makes me feel good knowing that I could change their day to a positive day. It frustrates me when bullies think that they can be mean to kids. My mom tells me that sometimes people are mean to other people because they are actually the one’s hurting and they need kindness too. That is hard especially when bullies are cruel and hurt people. My friends and I still deal with this, but we walk away.
I hope that generations can have less anger and sadness because of beginnings like Playworks. If we start young helping each other at a younger age it will get easier for the small and big acts of kindness will come naturally. We may not be able to solve the world’s problems but being kind one act at a time is a good beginning for all of us to succeed.
I want people to know Playworks is that act of kindness. I am very grateful to be part of something that means something so big that actually is a small amount of time and effort.
