What can BROWN do for you? by Ryan

Today was OFY's (my school) "Day at the park". Basically it's a social event where students and teachers from all the different centers in our Charter are supposed to mingle, eat lunch, and play some games. Since I tend to be more of an introvert, I wasn't excited about going, but I knew I should even though I wouldn't know that many people. Besides that I figured when I got there I would recognize some people and force myself to be a little more social, no big deal. When I got to the park, I drove around the parking lot one time, just to make sure I was in the right place and then I parked and made my way to the party. Along the way I was comforted by the sight of a large "OFY" poster made by one our students. As I walked up to the party, I noticed all the students in the back and the adults were up front. To my dismay, I didn't recognize hardly any of them. "Oh well," I thought, "here goes nothing." I positioned myself on the outside of the group and looked for a friendly face, but I only recognized one teacher in the background over by the students. I didn't go over to her because it looked like the food had just been prepared and I didn't want to miss out. I stood in line, got my plate, and was even friendly with the other "teachers", saying hi, offering my place in line, and pointing out hamburgers with cheese on them to others, as I had just taken the last one of a bunch. Overall, I thought I was doing pretty well by not cowering over in the corner or turning around and just going back to work instead of socializing. As I was about to ask a guy to hand me the mustard that he was rudely hogging, I felt a tap on my shoulder. "Excuse me," the man said, "what group are you with?" In my mind I was thinking he mistook me for one of the students so I reassured him that I was a teacher with OFY. "This is UPS," he said, "Options For Youth is over there." OUCH! The stupidity gauge went off in my head as I began to put the pieces of the puzzle together, the weird looks, the whispering: "Who is that? I don't know." How could I have not figured it out? Needless to say I felt very dumb and apologized several times and offered to throw the burger away. The manager assuaged my guilt and embarrassment by telling me that it was ok because UPS could afford it. I debated throwing it away, but decided it was a shame to waste a perfectly good burger, even if it didn't have mustard. Then I went over and ate it in front of all the hungry OFY people who were still waiting for the food to arrive. It was great. I will now be known as Ryan the "Hamburglar".