The ceremony was nice. Sort of like a mini-graduation. It reminded me a lot of the Hooding Ceremony I participated in as a doctoral graduate. Students were given their IB sashes to wear at graduation and there was an air of pride and jubilation. The students conducted themselves politely although as one young man crossed the stage wearing a fedora and carrying a cane I wondered why he was dressed as a young Mahatma Gandhi, the way I remembered him portrayed in the 1982 film. I found out later he was impersonating Snoop Dog. I was clueless, which made me feel a little old and uncool but hey, I guess I am old and uncool. So be it.
We left the ceremony and decided to have a little impromptu celebration at home, which is sort of how a lot of these things go. We make a spontaneous decision to create a celebration and then quickly pull it together. Steve, Parker, and I stopped at the grocery store to find a little pre-made cake. We intended to have "Congratulations, Nerd!" written on it.
We are immensely proud of Anna's accomplishments and we lovingly refer to her as our little nerd. She has managed to go through the rigorous IB program almost like it was nothing. I've noticed that the program evokes a good bit of whining and complaining from a lot of IB students but Anna hardly ever mentioned how challenging it was. We are all a little in awe of her. Not only did she breeze through IB, she also took a job and worked at least 20-hours per week through her junior and senior years. Now granted, Steve, Charles, Parker, and I all held jobs in high school, but none of us came anywhere near the academic achievements Anna has. Although she didn't have to, she paid for all of her own IB exam fees and maintained a GPA that far surpassed anything the rest of us earned. While we have a pretty smart family, none of us got our act together as early as Anna did. I think my goals in high school were just passing my classes and flirting with boys. I probably didn't get a cake for that.
Anyway, she's pretty much our hero. So she deserved a cake and a celebration.
We found our little cake covered in chocolate frosting with white edging and sugar daisies and took it to the decorating station with its array of partially squeezed, colorful frosting bags. I asked the cake decorator if she would please write on it for me. She took the cake from my hands without a word, as if I was inconveniencing her terribly. I cheerfully asked if she would write, "Congratulations, Nerd!" on it. At this point she seemed a little angry at me as she glared and said, "Congrats." Meanly. "Um...sure...congrats!" She grabbed a tube of blue frosting and I started to say, "Oh, how about you use a different color," since blue didn't really coordinate with any of the colors on the cake. I wanted to request yellow but her hostility was palpable so I let it go. I mean, it was cake, not a cure for cancer. I couldn't see provoking her any further. Clearly, asking her to perform her job had created enough conflict. She hastily wrote, 'Congrats, Nerd' and wordlessly, but angrily, handed the cake back to me.
Alrightythen.
We walked away from the bakery department and once we were out of her earshot Steve said quietly, "Well, she was a happy cake lady," which made Parker and me laugh but it did make me wonder why she is working as a cake decorator if she is that miserable. Cake is often involved in happy celebrations. Not always, but most of the time. Her attitude, it seemed, was almost as incongruent as the blue frosting she used to write our sentiment.
I can't begin to know the circumstances of the Grumpy Cake Lady's life. I can't know what made her so angry. If decorating cakes makes her that mad, she might want to find another line of work but I suspect it goes deeper than that. We all have issues and troubles. Some more difficult than others. Some of our own making. Some out of our control. But, I wonder how treating a stranger with disdain could possibly help.
Maybe if Grumpy Cake Lady, you, and I all started treating people even nicer on the days when we feel like being mean, it might make everybody involved just a little happier. I know everyone isn't outgoing and vivacious. I'm not asking for perky. Just polite. Please don't impose your bad day on me and I won't impose my bad day on you. That's all.
It isn't that hard to be nice. Nice people make the world a better place.
And a better world is definitely worth celebrating.
With cake.
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