bella merits one more shout-out this week. earlier i had talked about bella reaching one of her high school goals but there were a few more i didn't mention. shortly after starting her freshman year, bella learned that at her school there were a few service awards presented every year to the senior class. she immediately pointed to the stands and said that after her four years, she wanted her name attached not to one of the two, but both of them. then she went to work.

curiously, there was another girl in bella's class that seemed equally focused on these titles. in testament to how driven each of these girls were, at the end of their junior year at the awards ceremony, the senior with the most service hours is presented with a special distinction. the winning senior that year had something like 180 hours of service. bella, a junior, had around 480 hours and her service-nemesis, also a junior, had a good bit more than 500 service hours. more than once i wondered how the senior who received that year's recognition felt when two underclassmen stomped them convincingly.

losing the hours war her junior year motivated bella in a new kind of way. but the close match also let the other girl know she had someone in her blind spot. so at their senior service awards, the other girl again won the service hours battle, BUT bella won the senior award because she had more cumulative hours over the four-year span. elation. and i highly doubt there had ever been such a fierce competition behind that award since its start.

then a month later bella won another service award from the school that is not entirely connected to straight hours but overall contributions to the community. this is a more prestigious award and has a plaque in the entryway of the school that carries the names of every winner over the years.

so in fitting fashion, the night before bella's last day of high school she coincidentally had her dad hour with me and when i asked her what she wanted to do in her last-ever high school dad hour, she said i could help her bake some pies. one was for a teacher who recently lost her mother. one was for a co-worker who had paid her several kindnesses (e.g. walking her to her car at the end of an evening shift), and one was for a teacher who let bella chill (and do homework) in his room all year in an off-hour.

so the recipient of her high school's top two service awards, spent her last night of high school baking pies to give away the next day. and i got to help. though when my finsihed pie came out looking a bit better than hers she said i might not get invited to the next pie-making party.

and yes she is wearing a shirt that says "it costs $0.00 to be a nice person". and yes i am sporting a very stylish fanny pack.