Project Description

Before we get started, there’s a word I want to make sure everyone knows. The word consequence. Who can tell me what that word means?

That’s right. It’s the result when something happens. It’s the result of an Action. Consequences aren’t always bad, although we usually think they are.   So now that we’ve learned what the word means, let’s get to our story.

Did you know that there are some people who think the first part of the alphabet doesn’t go ABC? Some people think it goes AC! They leave out the B.

They think it goes straight from A Action to C Consequence. But they leave out the B. The B is the most important thing of all.

This is a story of two girls, Elizabeth and Sarah. They were in the same school in the same grade in the same class. They both loved school – even though they never would admit it to anyone. They both looked forward to learning more. And they both had the same dream – to one day become a scientist.

In school they were learning about two-digit subtraction for the first time, and how you had to borrow when trying to subtract. And soon, just as they like to do in school, they had a test on it.

Well, Elizabeth didn’t do so well on the test. She thought she had understood, but when she got her test back, she was embarrassed at how she did. She put it in her backpack and tried to pretend she didn’t get a bad grade.

Sarah, bless her heart, didn’t do so well either. She thought SHE had understood too! When she got her test back, her heart sank all the way to the floor. She quickly hid it in her backpack too.

Both Sarah and Elizabeth had the same exact Action in our story. They both failed the same math test. But they had two entirely different results, two entirely different consequences.

Elizabeth thought for the rest of the day how she was bad at math – she would never get it. Just look at that test! She went home and went up to her room and started to get upset with herself. And upset with school! Especially math. Why couldn’t school just be fun, like reading and art? She kept thinking about how bad she was at math, and that she probably let her parents down too.

When Sarah got home, she too was sad. She didn’t want to be bad at math, and even though it was hard, she thought she needed to get better at it. She went and asked her mom for help. Her mom was a little upset about the test, sure, but Sarah’s mom sat down and showed Sarah where she made the mistake with borrowing. After Sarah learned the mistake, she asked her mom to make up more problems until she got it right.

As the years passed and passed, Elizabeth kept believing she was horrible at math. She ended up graduating, but knew how much math there was in science, and decided to study something else when she got to college. She never got to be a scientist. That was her Consequence. That math test was the roadblock that kept her from reaching her dream.

As the years passed and passed, Sarah struggled with math too, but she didn’t let that keep her down. She studied, asked for help, and kept trying. And slowly she got better at math. And when she went to college, she studied science, and eventually she reached her dream of becoming a scientist.

So here we have the same exact Action – failing a math test. And two entirely different Consequences – Elizabeth gave up on her dream, and Sarah is living her dream.

So why the two different results? It’s all about the B. Actually, it’s all about the B’s. Sarah believed she could Bounce Back. I guess that was Three Bs there. She believed she could bounce back from that math test. She believed she could get better, and she did. She didn’t let that one math test keep her from her dream. She believed she could bounce back. Say that after me: “I believe I can bounce back.” One more time together “I believe I can bounce back!” And now, just for fun, on the count of three, I want you to scream it out loud together. Ready? One, two three.

Whenever we hit a roadblock, face a struggle, or have a really hard time, if we believe we can bounce back, then anything is possible. That’s why I gave you a rubber ball on your way in today. I want you to hold on to this ball, and when you feel down. When you feel defeated. When you feel powerless. I want you to grab this ball and remember that you too can bounce back.

In fact, something I’ve noticed about bouncy balls – the harder the fall, the more they bounce back. Right now a lot of us feel like we’ve fallen, our society has fallen, progress has fallen, quite a bit. But remember, the harder the fall, the more we bounce. I believe we can bounce back. We believe we can bounce back. Say that with me one last time – we believe we can bounce back.

May it be so!