Freddie L Brown Sr. Scholarship

Growing up in a small family I had a close relationship with my grandma. My grandma and I have been best friends since I was a little kid. One Christmas night my grandma and I were opening my gifts. This one specific Christmas I got dolls, crafting supplies, and play dough, and every child’s first instinct after opening their gifts is to play with them. I began playing with my ice cream play dough kit which at the time was one of the best gifts. As I’m making the ice cream sandwich I call my grandma into the room to try my ice cream sandwich. In my mind, she was just entertaining me by asking me what was in it and how I made it, but little did I know she didn’t know that it was play dough. After she asked her initial questions I said “try it”, and she put the whole piece of play dough in her mouth. Everyone was laughing and telling her that it wasn’t real and she screamed and said “I will never eat anything else you give me”. That night she wouldn’t play with me anymore.

After a long day, everyone can use a joke, that's what I thought; a smile on someone's face can immediately change the outcome of anyone's day. Constantly being under the impression that it is a time to laugh and smile at all times. But turns out I was wrong. One school day back 2 years ago, I was in the first period. Hanging with my friends in the morning has me in an awfully playful mood. We were throwing a football in class, making jokes about how we couldn't catch. Even telling them someone with no arms was probably better at catching. And then suddenly, my friend Chelse burst into my class with a down face walking straight towards me. Seeing her mood, I made a senseless joke about her forehead that usually brightens her mood. But, instead of laughing, she gets in an even worst mood, and then she steps closer and waits. So then again, not realizing that maybe a joke isn't necessary at this moment, I put my finger right under her neck. She then looks down, and I flick her jaw up, which once again only aggravates her more. Out of frustration, she groans and sighs and then leaves the room in apparent tears. Being the young lad that I am, I'm completely distraught. I asked my friends, ''what was that''. They shrugged their shoulders, confused about what was going on. So we go back to throwing the football back and forth, and the more I think about it while I'm throwing it, the more concerned I become. So then it hit me like literally, the football hit me and I left the room and went to scour for Chelse. I check the cafeteria, hallways of my school, and I even call her with no response. But I remembered we always hang out in the library when skipping class. I look by the chairs where we usually sit and then go row by row and find her sitting in the back. I take a deep breath trying to be serious for once, then approach. She is sitting at the desk with her head in her folded arms. She was crying, so I slowly approached and said, hey, it's Tre. She doesn't look up, so I sit at the desk and ask her, "what's going on." She says ''some problems at home with her family''. And I say ''do you wanna talk about it'', and she says ''no''. I'm confused, but instead of saying something witty for once, I just sit in silence. I start confronting her until she gets her finishes spilling her heart out. But in the end, she's okay, she gets up and says ''I needed that''. Then she gave me a hug then said, ''there's something on your shirt''. I looked down and got flicked. And we laugh it off. I can't believe I fell for my own trick. But at the end of the day, sometimes jokes aren't the solution for every situation, and although they can be good fun, so can silence. Just know when and when not to make them.