Birthday Fun

Mariah Ryce


I feel that this week was a very productive week. We got a lot done with our project. We finally chose a solid topic: teen pregnancy. We chose teen pregnancy because it was the biggest problem we noticed in our community and schools. We got a chance to see exactly what we wanted to do for our individual projects. For my individual project, I would like to have a workshop at Epic on teen pregnancy. I would have a panel of teen mothers talk about how difficult it is to have a child in their life while balancing school.  Also, I am planning on staging role-play and choose-your-own-adventure stories that expresses the importance of safe sex. I would like to show that teens don’t have to give into peer pressure and that they can make their own decisions.

But in doing all of this, I believe that Monday was still the best day because it was Chris's birthday. So we took him out to lunch to celebrate. We met up with team Woodlawn so they could come and celebrate with us too. Before we went to lunch, we went to go get sundaes on campus. You get a chance to customize it the way you want to. I customized mine with cookies and cream ice cream, salted peanuts and of course chocolate sauce. I always enjoy hanging out with team Woodlawn and going to different events on campus. It gives me a chance to get to know them better as well as have some fun. 


Once we were finished, we walked to Harold’s Chicken to go get lunch. We ordered there and then walked back to campus to eat, 'cause Harold’s was very hot! We even got a chance to see Tom’s sister's wedding pictures. I had a lot of fun eating lunch with them but then it was time to get back to work. I worked with Chris and Elise on ideas in moving our project forward, and brainstorming which activities we can do at the YMCA when we volunteer. Elise and I looked into doing a Zumba fitness with the kids. I have never done Zumba fitness before, so I am excited to to learn and teach the youth of the community something fun to do.