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The question today is, what happens when a teenager? What if upper gets inspired to celebrate positivity and kindness? At her high school? Well, I'm Mendhi Audlin, founder of The What If UP Club and today, I have my daughter, Jenna here who is home for summer on summer break. And she had an amazing first year of high school, didn't you? Would you say it was a great year? It was great. It was great. So what was one of your favorite things about high school is
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your being in person being in person? So
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she was at a new school? She was in a new high school in a new town. And how was it being the new kid? It was good fun. It was. So what made that easier for you?
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Having other new kids? Yeah,
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it does help to have some other new kids as well. So today, I want to share with you some stories, some stories that are well, I'll say this, Jenna had an idea she had something happened at school. And we were talking about it in the car on the way home from school. And it led to an idea. And that idea, she really took to a whole new level. So I'm going to share with you she's going to share with you what she did and some of the impact that it had. What if it gives you some ideas not only for what teens can do with a what if up mindset, but what you might be able to do inspired by a new generation of what if uppers? Jenna, do you remember where this whole thing began?
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I seem to recall, one of my friends and other new kid was kind of being teased and the person that was being rude to him, it was in gym class, and we decided to pelt him with dodge balls. And it honestly wasn't the best idea. But I mean, just us coming up with the solution. I started thinking of like, well, that was technically a what if up?
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So right, so they saw an injustice and you thought you would make it right on the dodgeball court. One of the reasons why I never liked dodgeball, but it was a creative way to show support for the new kid. And we were talking about this on the way home and I'm like, oh, that's some good good ideas. You know, some good What if upping that you don't have to have a fight after school or you know, you don't have to, you know, like you didn't do anything super violent. Hey, you know, pe just normal PE class, but I thought it was very creative. So anyway, I was telling Jenna after she shared the story about something that we used to do, and we call them kindness, conspiracies. So I just planted the seed of an idea. And when a kindness conspiracy is kind of an acknowledgment challenge, and I have these stickers that are what about stickers for what if uppers so what we used to do is we would take anytime I saw someone who was being a word of upper stepping into possibility, or overcoming a hardship or seeing things in a new way, I would acknowledge them by giving them a sticker. And then I would give them three more stickers so that they could pay it forward. So that was my idea. That's what I did. But Jenna took it to, you know, to her classmates in a different way. So you want to share what you did?
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Yeah. So I took a bunch of these stickers to school with me. And essentially, when I saw like acts of kindness and things that I just consider being one of up, I would give somebody sticker. Some people, I would just give a sticker. Some people, especially people that I knew, well, I would give them more stickers to start giving out. It's really fun. On the back, I wrote messages. It took me quite a bit during study hall to write these on, like a lot of stickers. I'm not sure if you can read that says What if up is saying what if it all goes right and not what if it all goes wrong? Join the kindness conspiracy, or just a bunch of nice people with stickers. So I would hand these out. 1.1 of the kids decided to he was really tall, he decided to put one like over the door, like near our English classroom. And I'm like, I love the sentiment. But also I mean, we had to take it down. But it was good. It was good fun. So
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the stickers start popping up places stickers
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started popping up. We have this positive like compliment board at our school. So I put some of them on there. I brought a few stories with me of more specific people that I gave them to. One is when I first moved there, the first day no one was really talking to me. But after a little while some kids would start inviting me over to sit with them and stuff like that. So I give them a sticker to as a thank you. And then we also have a teacher at our school that we our math teacher had to leave due to pregnancy. And so we had a substitute math teacher for the whole year and kind of sounds like not a substitute. Yeah, right. And so we had kind of a difficult class to deal with. So I gave her what FIP
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sticker for until a little bit about her because not only was she a substitute math teacher, she also
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is from outside the United States and so some kids like being rowdy. They would tease her about her accent and stuff like that. She just kind of brushed it off, like not making a big deal out of it and trying to start something. She just wanted us to keep learning math stuff. So she got a sticker. And another.
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I have to ask, do people like how do people respond when you would give them a sticker confused? Like, what is this? And then I say, you know what's on a coffee mug?
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Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they, there's a lot of these on water bottles at school now. Also, some of the upperclassmen that have graduated this year, a lot of them got stickers, because some of them were doing a really good job of knowing everybody and talking to the underclassmen and giving advice and stuff like that. So I give them stickers to
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Nice. Yeah, so now they can take the stickers off to college with them. Congratulations, grads. So what's it like for you? Do you have a good time doing it is what's kind of
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fun, I have a little baggie just full of these that I'll carry around in my backpack. When I see something. I'm like, they need a sticker. I'll dig it out and find a time to give it to them. So it's it's always a lot of fun.
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I love it. So I have got I just ordered, because you used all my stickers. I just ordered some music. I mean, literally you probably how many stickers Do you think you've given away? I have no idea. I'm thinking it's in the hundreds because I am out of stickers. And I sent out a few. But I think you were you were giving away quite quite a few. And what's great is it's just a great way to it's a great acknowledgement. I love the handwritten note on the back. I mean, I think that is so cool. So you could just slip someone a sticker and not even be very stealth about it. But if this is something and you're like, you know what, this would be a great way to just kind of create some interest. We talked about having a what if up club at the school, and this was a good, you know, this would be a really good way to kind of plant the seeds for that, like what is what if something, you could do this for a week or to or for a month or two and then sort of what if up club at the school. So if this is like, Oh, I have an idea, I'd like to use this at my church, I'd like to use this in my office, I'd like to do a kindness conspiracy, my school or in the neighborhood. I mean, anywhere where you see people being nice and stepping into possibilities are people who you know, when you see someone who you know, at the grocery store, and someone's not super kind to them, and then you're next in line. And you want to say something like this is just sort of a fun little acknowledgement to have in your back pocket to be able to let people know that you see them and you see what they are dealing with. And you have compassion for them and that you see the best in them. So what do you love about being a web developer?
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I love just bringing the level of positive what if and just just good vibes that it just brings everywhere? I've been raised as a web developer, I don't know how not to be a wedding. So I kind of spread. Spread the juice, good Juju?
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Did people pick it up pretty quick when you tell them what to what if up? Or is are they like, Oh, I got it. I got it. Or they like all of them? Is it kind of fun to see all the different? Lots of fun? Yeah. So that is my, my challenge for you is if you want some stickers reach out to me, I don't have this on our website yet for sale. Eventually we'll probably do that. But if you want some reach out to me, and I'll help you figure out how to get you know, I have stacks of like 250 stickers that I can send you that you could share or maybe I'm not gonna write on the back of all of them. No, no, no, you get everyone on the back of your own. That's part of the part of the beauty of it. You pretty much write the same thing on everyone or do you customize it?
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I sometimes I customize it a lot of the kids seem to prefer I started calling it the positivity cult. Yes. teachers prefer kindness conspiracy, right. So I customize that
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just a little bit. There we go. You got to give the people what resonates with the people. Right. So great idea, Jenna, and I want to acknowledge you for the amazing what if upper that you are you're awesome and and I love it's just so fun to see this taking root in a new generation. I would say people ask me sometimes like when are you old enough to what if up? And Jenna you've been one upping your entire life? And I will say the the youngest group that I've ever spoken to with a what if obsession was during this first grade class when she was in first grade? Do you remember that at all? No, not at all. So it was career day. And I came in as an author. And we went up with the first grade class had to change from one classroom to the other without making any noise. That was the most important thing for your class at that moment. And it was super cute. So you can What if up at any age is a great skill set. It's a great mindset to teach at any age. Anything. Yep. Never too late to learn to what a lovely kid. Thanks for being my special guest. Thank you for joining us for this what if Wednesday, I hope you enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing you next time. By the way. We do have a challenge going on in our Facebook communities. If you're not in the club, now is the time what are they thinking if they're not in the club? Join the club in the club. What if up.org and see what's happening in our online community. We also have small groups that are starting so you can be in a wonderful circle and feel all the kindness all the love all those positive vibes. Thanks for being everybody. We'll see you next time on what happens day by.
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Day. rains down, you chase your dream
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
