On Monday, May 5, creative writing teacher Roxie Smith put up black paper on a wall in the hallway of AHS. She drew lines and added a title “Before I Die.” She is asking people to put their dreams and wishes on the wall. Students have added anything from, “Give a homeless person a Christmas present”, to “Swim with dolphins.” Students are sharing fantasy dreams to realistic dreams. Students also are making small side comments like “cool”, “awesome”, and  “me too!” They are drawing pictures that have to do with their dreams from hearts to mountains and airplanes.

Mrs. Garwood brought this idea to Mrs. Smith because she said her daughter attends college in Doane and one day there were walls up similar to the ones in the AHS hallway. Mrs. Garwood said that “If anyone was going to try this it would be Mrs. Smith.”

The woman Candy Chang from New Orleans created this wall saying, she was inspired when a family member passed away. She was amazed at how many people actually wrote on the wall so she put up more. She was not exactly sure what to expect, but the next day the walls got so filled up she had to erase them. You can now find these walls all around the world, like in Japan and Ireland and many more places. She said that it was easy to forget about day-to-day things. Pretty soon she started receiving hundreds of messages about making a wall with their community.

Misty Graham, the teacher of careers and computers let her students take action and let them write on the wall. She stated, “Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Garwood talked to me, they asked if I would be interested and I said yes. At the beginning of the semester we talk about our goals, and how we can achieve them. We wrote all of our hopes and dreams on that wall.” When they got back to the classroom, she asked “how did this make you feel?” Students started to shout and respond with things like “happy!” “I felt like I am closer to this goal.” Some students stated things like, “we shared the same dreams.” Mrs. Graham had said that this was exciting and did this to help them take another step towards their dreams.

I too have wrote on this wall. I put my biggest wish. This wall made me realize that it wasn’t just about me, but others too. I based my wish on my mother. This wall made me feel better about myself, and also made me have hope. The words I wrote on the wall were “Cure Cancer.” I walk past this wall everyday and it reminds me to keep my head up and continue to reach for my goal.

Hopefully students continue to take action and continue to put their wishes on the wall. This not only helps kids reach for their dreams but it also gives them hope.  This helped students to take the next step to their dreams. I think most students would say that this was a good experience and was a good way to motivate students and continuing to do this in the next couple of years would be a good way to keep us inspired.