Shoe Boxes

When I was in High school my cousins and I spent a Saturday making personalized shoe boxes.  We spent hours searching through magazines cutting out phrases and pictures that we liked or that we thought described us.  We then glued the magazine clippings to our shoe boxes, covering every inch. We sealed them with a coat of packing tape to make them durable. And durable mine has been.  It is overflowing with all my old photographs and friend's school pictures.

I decided, because my box is so special to me, I wanted to do the same thing with my d-group girls. Neena Clevenger and Payless Shoes saved a bunch of shoe boxes for me. The last two d-groups we have been scavengers searching through pages of advertisements looking for funny phrases, favorite foods, words associated with church or words and pictures we like just because.  Usually when I am really excited about a project I plan for the girls to do, it goes over like a lead balloon.  I was really excited about the shoeboxes, but I had low expectations for their enthusiasm.

Its post Christmas and we just made it through February- month of relationship drama.  Winter is drama season for middle school girls.  Recently the girls have been using me and d-group as an opportunity to get together to talk about the most recent drama among their peers.  I was slightly discouraged, because it seemed they didn't really care about what we did at d-groups at all.  Another reason I had low expectations for the shoebox project.  But they have loved it.  The atmosphere is relaxed and peaceful as they cut and glue and laugh at funny pictures and words.  All drama has seemed to be left at the door when we are working on the shoeboxes.  It has given us the chance to focus on each other and caring for each other which is something I did not expect when planning the project.  I haven't had to awkwardly change the subject from the latest fight at school over and over again the last two meetings.  One on my girls even announced this past week that she prayed out loud for the first time.  She was by herself and really felt like she wanted to pray so she prayed out loud.  I am glad we created an atmosphere where she was able to tell us something that was so personal and so meaningful.
The shoeboxes are still a work in progress, but so is the d-group.