“Sweety, can you hang these all around the room as well?”
I accepted with a grin that filled my face, despite the heaviness load of my body.

It was Paragon Night that Thursday in Phoenix Advantage Charter School. All the teachers were occupied decorating their classrooms with different student-made drawings and devices illustrating the diversity of cultures from all around the world. It was the night for each student to show their family a sneak peak of what they had learned in history class that semester.

Mrs. Coleman’s third grade class was chosen to represent the Hispanic, Chinese, and American cultures. Since 8 A.M. I had been adorning the room, enhancing it with the creative artwork of Mrs. Coleman’s alumni. I was a human stapler attaching drawing after drawing up and down up and down the white bare walls.

Mrs. Coleman, a third grade teacher, handed me a cardboard box overflowing of red, blue, green, and just any other color available. Each student in her classroom had designed at least two triangular-shaped flags out of construction paper with diamond-shaped designs scattered throughout. I hung these Hispanic decorations from the left side of the entrance all around the classroom to the other end. And up until the end of the school day, around 3:30 P.M., I continued filling the classroom with fierce red and orange Chinese dragon drawings, American flags, and Hispanic music.

Paragon night began around 5:30 P.M. And the hallways gasped for air as parents packed the classrooms of their children. It was heartwarming to experience an event such as this. All the students were ecstatic. Artwork, food, clothing, music, language, and dance performances; an illustration of the melting pot the United States holds within itself.

It reminded me of my young years when I attended Phoenix Advantage. Paragon Night was always a blast and was different every year. I feel like this night expresses a sense of gratitude to what we have now. It is simply a teaching that history changes and has different perspectives to it. But despite all the occurrences, important celebrations, and dates of infamy in history, it keeps the world together and prospering.
That night, children of all ages walked into a new world. A world of adventure. A night where different cultures collaborated and swam into their growing brains. I am grateful to have been a part of this night. To have decorated the classroom and to have given the families a tour around the school.
A man has traveled around the world in 80 days, but Phoenix Advantage toured the world in one night.