THE ECHO

by Zoe Smyth

On March 17, I went to school with a simple white t-shirt and left with a unique display of creativity and a handful of new stories.

Left with the task of filling a shirt with the fresh black ink of a Sharpie, I wondered what the students and staff of Avon High School would choose to write and if they would have interesting things to add. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

At the beginning of the day, I was worried no one would want to sign my shirt. After forcing a handful of close friends and a teacher or two to sign it, it became evident that it would not be difficult to gather graffiti. Random students began asking me if I was getting my shirt signed (yes) if my shirt was from summer camp (no) and if they could sign it (absolutely!)  One of the most notable signatures left was signed before school had even started. A student had written “Jesus loves you!” across my back. This lovely message seemed to really set the tone, with others leaving positive messages like “Have a good day” and “Love everyone” next to the giant note.

By the end of second period, I had acquired roughly a dozen signatures. While this was a good start, I knew I needed to step it up if I wanted to reach my quota of 25 signatures by the end of the day.

My first real attempt at “stepping it up” was during lunch, where I got almost my entire table to sign my shirt. While I do not usually talk to most of them, they were more than willing to leave their signature. One girl wrote “Silly Goose King” and explained that it was a compliment and to “just accept it.” And so, I did.

Following lunch, I headed to math class hoping more people would want to sign my shirt. However, I never got the chance to ask; it was lecture day and we took notes up until the bell. I was able to ask Miss Titzer, my geometry teacher, to sign my shirt. She told me that she did not know what to write and asked my “shoulder partner” to write something on her behalf. However, my shoulder partner was not sure what to write either. After a few minutes of brainstorming, she decided to simply leave the statement “idk what 2 write” on the front of my shirt.

After collecting several more random pieces of graffiti, the day soon came close to ending. I had a good number of signatures, but by the time I reached the seventh period, it was clear that I needed more. So, I set out during the last hour of the day, searching for willing stragglers.

I roamed the halls and asked whoever I could to join in. Thankfully, every person said yes. As a last resort, I went to the newest front office. There, several of the front office ladies and many of the TAs happily agreed to sign my shirt. With the help of the last few willing people, I was able to meet my goal of at least 20 signatures.

Overall, it was a good experience. While it went mostly as expected in terms of most everyone agreeing to sing the shirt, the variety of what students and teachers left surprised me. The creativity and uniqueness the members of AHS showed in this assignment truly helped bring the experience to a whole new level.