Some Little Joy
Sunni Park and Emily Chang (G11)
It’s Monday, March 21st, 12:13 PM, Sunni and Emily are struggling to write this paragraph as we stress over our unfinished homework and upcoming tests. Are you just as tired? Don’t worry! Join us on an embarrassing and funny adventure below that will brighten your spirit and leave a smirk on your face :))
Sunni: I wish I could be old...
Emily: Why?
Sunni: So I wouldn’t have to worry about life, school, and mean people.
Emily: Yeah that’s true, but there are some little things that can bring us joy.
Sunni: Like what?
Emily: I’ll tell you (and our fellow buddies!) a story...
A pink cotton candy tornado of excitement spun in my heart as 6-year-old me lay in semi-darkness in my pink pig pajamas next to Mom. It was Christmas Eve, and I could hear the whoosh of cars twenty-four stories below and Dad watching action movies in the living room. I wanted to join him because then, just perhaps, I would see Santa Claus.
“Close your eyes,” Mom whispered, patting my back. “And when you wake up tomorrow morning, you’ll see all your presents.”
I didn’t want to listen, but I knew I had to as I was a filial Chinese daughter. I knew that if I listened to my parents, Santa would know, and he would bring me my greatest wish--Cinderella’s glass slippers in my size.
Two years later, when I realized Santa’s letters were curiously scrawled in Mom’s handwriting, I began to realize Santa is simply another name for our parents, siblings, friends, and classmates, and because for me Christmas is a secular holiday of surprises, I felt robbed of its magic. Santa is fake anyways, so why put so much hope in someone who doesn’t exist? seven-year-old me cynically thought. Yet when my brother was born, I’d wrap presents and write notes in Santa’s guise so my little brother would feel the magic I had lost.
Now that I’m sixteen and my six-year-old brother is onto us, we’ve pared down our Christmas rituals. We left packaged snacks for Santa this year instead of cool, creamy milk and warm sugar cookies, and we only put up a sad, tiny tree. As for my three friends and I, we decided to do a Secret Santa exchange so each of us bought someone one gift instead of four. Jiyu is the grandma of our group. She’s a year older than us so she takes care of us as if we were her grandkids. Sophie is Dad. She keeps her feelings to herself and cares for us as well. Sunni is a cheerful puppy. I’m the moody kid.
For teenagers, Christmas means midterms, which means we all got soaked in the thundering rain of impending test doom. Sunni and I collapsed onto the groaning couch that sagged in front of the school office, stress filling our bodies like malignant balloons.
“When’s your test?” Sunni asked, biting her pencil as she heaved her chem book out of her backpack and started trying to balance equations.
“In two days,” I moaned. “So...have you bought your Secret Santa gift yet?”
I wanted to think of something cheerful instead of the unending avalanche of work that fell upon me.
“No, but I’ve looked up options,” she smiled.
In my effort to further heave off the avalanche, we started discussing the merits of various mechanical pencils. “What’s the Chinese word for it?” she asked. “I’d like to buy some.”
I offered to type it in for her, so she handed me her phone. As soon as I typed in the characters, I saw her browser history: “Buds 2 case” and “Samsung Buds case.” My body froze, and then I began to laugh uncontrollably.
I knew whom Sunni had for Secret Santa now! Only one person in our friend group used a Samsung phone. And therefore, only one person had put “Buds 2 case” (Samsung AirPods case) on her wish list. I clutched Sunni’s phone to my heart as she tried to snatch it to see what had ignited my laughter, then let go of the phone with a cheerful, teasing smirk.
Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but as soon as I said “Buds 2,” she threw her hands up in defeat as her eyes twinkled and narrowed into twin crescent moons.
“HEYYY!” she yelled, leaning towards me.
“I wish I could unsee this, but I can’t,” I laughed triumphantly.
When I finally stopped laughing, I was surprised to find the tornado of misery inside me had stopped whirling, and I returned to my work with renewed verve.
Sunni: Oh right! You stole some guy’s charger on that same day!
Emily: No I didn’t...
Sunni: Yes you did! I’ll remind you (and whoever is reading this right now)...
You know that agonizing feeling when your device’s battery starts plummeting down, yet there is no place to charge? That’s what happened to me on a Friday afternoon.
I was with my friend Emily working on a three- page
long worksheet with chemistry balancing equations. We sulked at the thought of doing homework as our minds grew anxious with doubts about upcoming tests.
Finally, almost done I thought excitedly. I was ready to see if my answers were correct with the online answer keys, but when I opened my computer screen, it was pitch
black. I furiously clicked on the spacebar to confirm that my computer was, indeed, dead.
“Be right back,” I told Emily as I wandered off in search of a power outlet. After peering through each gap between the couches, I found one. The problem was the outlet is two couches away from our original spot. Not wanting to bother Emily as she meticulously studied for her upcoming history essay, I decided to leave my computer charging.
After half an hour of waiting, I went to retrieve my computer. Then I noticed something: a boy whom I’d never seen before was using my charger, leaving my computer derived of its much-needed energy. As I approached the boy, our eyes met, and he immediately apologized and handed my charger back. “It’s okay,” I chuckled.
I walked back towards Emily with my computer and charger in hand, telling her about the mini-incident. We giggled for a while until it subsided and we resumed our work.
“I only have three percent,” Emily exclaimed with only ten minutes left to print her history notes before the buses arrive.
“There’s a charging outlet over there,” I informed Emily, as I packed away my chemistry worksheets.
Emily hurriedly ran towards the couches where the outlet was. She began to reach for her charger until she noticed a boy charging his computer. That must be the boy who stole Sunni’s charger Emily thought as she grabbed the charger away and plugged her computer with it. The boy stared at Emily with a confused countenance.
Emily was befuddled at the boy’s reaction until she saw Sunni approaching her with her charger in hand. Embarrassed, Emily hastily apologized to the boy as she ran off towards me with her face rosy pink.
After she explained what had happened, we burst out cackling until the buses arrived.
Sunni: I guess the moral is that though it was short-lived, little episodes like this can usher in joyful memories that can last a lifetime, even on a chilly and stressful winter day.
Emily: Yess!