uk state of mind

the high school musical lunchbox

I jumped on my big red bus (#8, whoop whoop!) around 7:45 to get to PT this past Friday morning and as I got to the back of the bus I heard “Hi!” and realised that the little girl across from me was waving enthusiastically with a huge smile on her face.  I smiled back and said hello as I took a seat.  ”See mom!” she exclaimed as she gestured to the upper part of her jacket.  I smiled and realised she was pointing out my City Year patch.  Her mother smiled at me and asked if I knew St. Anne’s Primary school.  Turns out the little girl goes to the school that we, City Year, were shadowing that whole past week.

The little girl was dressed as a princess and her little brother was Spiderman - turns out it was fairy tale day at school (jealous!).  We chatted the whole ride and said goodbye as they got off at their stop.  A few short moments later I realised that the adorable little princess girl had left her lunch.  And not only that, but it was an awesome HIgh School Musical lunchbox!  I knew I couldn’t leave it on the bus, but I was too far away now to run after them and still make it to PT on time.

So I went to PT (rockin my lunchbox - got some stares) and decided to go to the school after and drop off the lunchbox.  My coworker Tam and I were walking down the road leading to St. Anne’s when a woman yelled out “Oh my gosh, thank you so much!”  It was the little girl’s mother - she had seen our big red jackets, recognised me, and then saw the lunchbox.  She threw her arms around me in a big hug as she kissed both my cheeks, and did the same to Tam.  She said he daughter had been crying about it the whole way to school and she would be so excited to have it back.  She thanked us profusely as we parted ways.

Today was a day that I felt like a City Year superhero.

Today was a day that I thought, “I love my job.”