Life lesson #294: It is possible to totally succeed and
utterly fail at the exact same time.
Two and
a half months ago, two of my friends/co-workers approached me about the
possibility about starting a school magazine at Gonzaga. I immediately jumped
on board…I love journalism and knew my students would benefit from the
opportunity for self-expression that this project would create. Being involved
in yearbook during high school and newspaper for a short time in college, I was
feeling confident about it and had a lot of grand ideas. We quickly put
together a team of the best and brightest (and secretly, some of my absolute
favorite) students. Much to my joy and surprise, they all wanted to be a part
of this brand new project.
Soon
after our initial meeting, we began working before school twice a week and I
spoke with the head teacher to make sure that we would have access to the
resources we would need….time in the computer room, the ability to scan, a
camera for pictures, a flash drive for our documents, and most importantly, a
way to print the magazine once it was complete. Luckily, she told me that all
of those things were possible. I was
told that our deadline should be September 28th, the day of Standard
7’s graduation. We could have a table set up for students and parents to buy a
copy. It seemed manageable to me…that gave us just over two months to complete
it. Things were panning out smoothly.
After
our meeting, I told my students to start working on what they wanted to write. Each
one, with little guidance from me and the other teachers, took it upon
themselves to set up interviews with the headmistress, academic deans, various
students, and members of the supporting staff. They wrote interview questions,
took pictures, and collected drawings and stories from their classmates. One
particular student in Standard 5 took initiative and appointed herself as Magazine
Photographer. Things were coming together quickly…by the middle of August, their
interviews were done and I had created a simple template to begin piecing our
content together. I was feeling
confident.
At the
beginning of September, we had a 2 week break from school and I was traveling
to Dodoma and Arusha with my community mates. This meant we would lose two
weeks of work time; when I left for Dodoma on the 15th I was not
entirely sure we would finish, since we would not be back in school until the
23rd…five days before the proposed deadline. Let’s just say, that of
the 30+ hours I spent on three different buses during that two weeks, at least
half of that time was spent scheming various ways to ensure we completed this
awesome project, which was gaining a lot of enthusiasm and interest from all
kinds of students.
So, I
returned to work on the 23rd and hit the ground running with the
final stages of design, layout, and proof-reading. Every spare minute I had was
spent on the computer ensuring that everything was ready. Unfortunately during
most of this final week, we were also all very busy preparing other important
elements for Saturday’s graduation. I was feeling the pressure…and the
disappointment that would follow if the magazine wasn’t ready on time.
On
Wednesday, I told the head teacher we were ready to print and to follow her
lead on making that happen. Well, as it often happens, there wasn’t actually a
plan for how to execute this important aspect of the process. We did not have
the resources to do the printing ourselves. Not knowing where we could
outsource on such short notice, I called one of the Jesuit brothers at the high
school to see if they could help. He suggested I speak with someone there who
was in charge of printing services. So, I went, during the school day when I
should have been teaching, to see if she could help. She could help….but not
that day. I was to come back the next day…two days before our launch date.
Thursday
morning came quickly and I found myself in the same office I was in the
afternoon before….but what I couldn’t find was the woman who was supposed to
help me. She was at a funeral. Luckily, the other people in her office were
more than helpful and I got 25 copies printed. When we started this project two
months ago, I was originally hoping to have several hundred copies so that it
would be available to students. But then I was told that it was out of our
budget….something I wish had been conveyed to me two months ago. I tried to
take it in stride and when I left Loyola with my 25 black and white copies, I
was on top of the world. It wasn’t much but we had something to show for all the hours of hard work my students put
into making this happen.
When I
got back to Gonzaga, a 10-mintue walk in the scorching noonday heat, sweat
running down my arms, wilting the heavy stack of paper I was carrying, I was
immediately met with….how should I say, dissatisfaction and criticism. “Why are
the pictures in black and white? This isn’t good, we can’t give this to the
students.” Bam! I was instantly knocked off the top of the world. Everyone
wanted to look, everyone had an opinion, and I began to feel disappointed in
myself. I tried and did the best I could with my limited resources and skill
set. I don’t know the first thing about getting colored copies printed in bulk
in this country. I was told that we shouldn’t have it at graduation; that it
was better to wait until we could make colored copies. I was defeated. I was
upset that my students wouldn’t be able to see the fruits of their labor after
I had promised them we would be ready.
Fortunately,
by the end of the day on Friday we had a plan. We printed just three colored
copies, two for the Guest of Honor of the graduation and one for the Accounts
Manager of Gonzaga (the same Jesuit brother who helped me get them printed at
Loyola). One of the other magazine moderators had the idea that we could have
the guest of honor auction off one of his two copies as a fundraiser for our
project. We would also tell the parents and other guests that they could make a
small contribution for one of the black and white copies; they would later
receive colored copies once we had the funds to print them.
So,
Saturday came and the wonderful graduation celebration began. After the Guest
of Honor’s speech, we presented him with his copy, officially launching the
first ever school magazine. When it was explained that we hoped he would
auction off one copy, he promptly pulled out 10,000 Tanzanian shillings (about
6 USD) and bought it for his wife. Then, the hired professional MC quickly
turned the whole thing into a fundraiser….he promptly began asking for
contributions for the lesser-quality black and white copies. One person came
forward pledging 5,000 TZA sh., the smallest recommended contribution amount.
Then another person…”elfu kumi” (10,000). Then another…”elfu kumi;” and
another…”elfu hamsini”…50,000 shillings!!!!!! And the people just kept
coming…by the end, we had less than 5 copies left and we had raised over
360,000 Tanzanian shillings (about 220 USD). All of the work and unfortunate mishaps paid
off….at the end of the day, it was a success.
Life
lesson 294: It is possible to totally succeed and utterly fail at the exact
same time. So the magazine wasn’t exactly how we imagined it would be two and a
half months ago. The launch didn’t go as smoothly as we hoped it would. BUT we
did have something to show for our two months of slaving over the computer
screen and now we have a great starting point for funding the future of this
project. Our initial failure of not having colored copies somehow managed to
create a superbly successful fundraiser! And more than that, to know that
parents and other supporters of Gonzaga believe in this project is a success in
and of itself.
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