The following is an excerpt from the original and irreplaceable blue binder that I gave to Penny along with Jomei when I passed him on. :)
November 5th:
TOMORROW IS THE DAY!!!!! I am so proud and happy to have made it a year carrying around Jomei, I can hardly contain my excitement!!!!! It's been an eventful year, and I truly believe that wearing my paperclip has reminded me to live my life more virtuously. I have had experiences that I never would have imagined, met new people, and made stronger and deeper friendships than ever before. The blessings I have received over this year are too many to count. I hope that I have been able to spread this joy around to others, and I also hope that Jomei has inspired a "chain reaction" (pun intended) for others to get involved with STORYclips. If you aren't already involved, take a paperclip--any kind will do--and bring it on a journey. Write down its story and turn it in. It will be added to the chain of other stories. Remember that it is not the paperclip itself that matters, it is what the paperclip represents: WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? As I have learned over the course of this year, the more stories that are interlinked, the more interesting life becomes. We learn to rely on each other for support, and are intriguing in ourselves and our own color, but also beautiful as a group, as a continuous rainbow colored chain of link after link, story after story. Thank you to everyone who is a part of this journey of life and love. Thank you.......for CHAINging the world. ♥
November 6th:
Today after school I gave away Jomei to a woman named Penny. She cleans at the school after hours and sometimes I talk to her when we pass in the halls. During some of the last months I wore my blue paperclip, it occurred to me that Penny would make an excellent person to pass this journey on to. She has agreed to go on the adventure. :) This is very exciting for me...I wish I could describe all the emotions I am feeling now. It's sort of funny--I keep reaching up to my neck like it's still going to be there, and I'm always a little shocked when my fingertips touch my shirt and not a little tangled piece of plastic-covered metal. Thanks again to everyone who has been a part of this journey, and may the story live on!!
BLUE PAPERCLIP
To whom it may concern:
If you have received this token of joy, congratulations! I have carried it around with me for a year. It might seem crazy, but it was well worth the journey. What started out to be a pointless idea on my bucket list turned into something far more meaningful than I could ever imagine.
Now you have a choice:
-Keep the paperclip
-Throw it away
-Hold on to it for a year and give it to someone else.
I hope you will accept the challenge to keep the paperclip circling.
STARTED: 11/06/11
COMPLETED: ?
This single blue paperclip actually inspired me to collect paperclips with interesting stories behind them. If you would like to check out some of the other stories that have been submitted, or would like to submit a paperclip of your own, feel free to visit the below web site! J
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
May you find peace, happiness, and wonder in the simple joys of life…
And may you spread your light to all who surround you.
The following pages contain the story of the BLUE PAPERCLIP.
Please copy and pass this story (plus yours addition!) to whomever you choose to at the end of your one-year journey. Also, I would love to hear your addition! Feel free to contact me at: story_clips@yahoo.com
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Journal Excerpt 11/08/11
Friend: One question
Me: Yeah?
Friend: Paperclip? (points to the blue paperclip I am wearing around my neck, dangling from a chain)
Me: Excellent question.
Friend: …are you going to answer it?
Me: Oh yeah! It’s on my bucket list…and maybe it’ll provide some inspiration. I’m going to keep it with me…somehow, someway, for a year. Then I’m going to give it to someone else and see what happens.
Friend: It’ll still be a blue paperclip a year from now.
Me: …maybe so.
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But I knew it wouldn’t be…There was no way that paperclip could survive a year without getting an interesting story. It barely even made it one day. Let’s go back a few days.
Not too long before I decided to embark on the paperclip escapade, I was attempting to answer what I call “Hard Questions.” Hard questions are…well, you guessed it. Hard. Difficult to answer. For the most part, I think they are questions a lot of people have about life. Questions about purpose, destiny, happiness…
We were having a class discussion in freshman honors English about the same time we were going over the rubrics attached to our graded poems.
On my rubric, my teacher wrote:
What are you going to do about it?
Those simple words inspired me to find answers to my hard questions. In essence, that is what this paperclip has done. It has been a reminder for me to search hard and listen carefully for whispers of answers. Even if I am not sure what the question is yet, I can hold valuable information together in attempts to better understand the world.
I hope that you are able to answer some of your own hard questions with this paperclip.
Journal Excerpt 11/09/11
I am still searching for an answer.
I am still wearing the paperclip (attached to the hem of my shirt, now).
No, I do not believe that the paperclip is going to solve any questions for me. I believe that I will solve questions by using it…I’m just not sure how yet.
Journal Excerpt 11/10/11
Today my biology project group used my paperclip to unclog a fabric paint bottle! We’re getting somewhere…slowly…but it’s a start! J
Journal Excerpt 11/11/11
(11:11 A.M. inside computer applications class)
We all wait, staring at the clock, soon…11:11 on 11/11/11 would arrive. A big moment, really. Since we were all stuck inside the classroom for this time, we decided to make it a group event. We leapt out of our seats and made a wish together. I wished for an answer to my hardest question of all, “What am I going to do about it?”
(11:11 P.M. at my house)
Getting ready for bed, talking to Mom…made the wish to do something small that changes the world.
Journal Excerpt 11/15/11
Here’s a blue paperclip update:
I just thoroughly explained my mission of answer hard questions to four curious girls wondering why I had a paperclip on the end of my shirt. They were weirded out by the idea. I cannot say I fully blame them. But they’ll see, someday. When they have the same questions I do, they’ll understand. In fact, they probably already have had hard questions…they’re just not sure how to go about solving them. I’m in the same boat, really. Just meandering around, attempting to use an inanimate object to inspire a revolution of sorts.
Journal Excerpt 12/08/11
In biology today, one of the girls who had been in my project group asked me if I still had my paperclip. I proudly pointed to it, still attached to the curtail of my shirt. Another girls overheard us talking and became interested in what was going on. She didn’t know why I was making such a big deal out of a blue paperclip. I explained the “hard questions” and “what I’m going to do about it” situation I’m in. Her reaction wasn’t much different than most. People around my desk continued to ask questions like, “Who are you going to give it to?” and “What if the next person who has it doesn’t want to keep it for a year and then give it away?” and, “what if it gets lost?” I told her I didn’t know. That I’m just making this whole
thing up as I go along. J
UNKNOWN DATE:
I went to my friend’s house and hung out in her backyard. She was telling me all about her childhood and how she and her siblings used to carve their name into a certain tree trunk. We carved our own names into this same trunk with my paperclip.
Journal Excerpt 04/04/12
I had a HUGE scare today. I was getting ready to put on my paperclip…and…it slipped. Fell through my fingers; fell through the crack between my bedstand and shelf. And I could not get it out. I FREAKED at school without it. I told my English teacher everything. She said she could really see this was “troubling me” and told me that I could string together other paperclips and use them to hook onto my blue one…pull it out. But I knew that would not be strong enough. I had tried nearly every way I could think of to get it out. Another person inside the classroom suggested using a magnet, but that did not work, either. Meanwhile, one of my best friends encouraged me by saying that I DID NOT FAIL MY PROJECT. I could still find it tonight, wear it tomorrow, and keep on going. My point was just to wear it everyday for a year…and this year is a leap year. As soon as I got home, I took out a ruler and started hacking at that paperclip deep down in the abyss of my bedstand for about fifteen minutes. It. Finally. Worked. It was covered in dust and fuzz and other junk, but it made it out! And I never did miss a day of wearing it. J IT’S BACK ON MY SHIRT!! <3
Journal Excerpt 04/14/12
I’ve got to stop doing this to myself. I almost lost my paperclip again today. I started dumping rain at tennis practice—hard rain. We were in a rush to get all the balls inside the shelter so they wouldn’t be ruined. Once we started leaving, I noticed my paperclip wasn’t on my shirt—again. I nearly dropped to my knees in the middle of the road. So I ran, NO!, sprinted, back to the courts in the pouring rain and scoured the ground until I finally found it.
There are scratches on one side now from where the concrete scraped it.
It has battle scars.
So do I.
Journal Excerpt 05/15/12
I am starting a revolution. It will be called: STORYclips.
People can bring in paperclips. We’ll add it to the chain of STORIES…because every clip must have been on a journey. I’m not sure where this is going yet…
Journal Excerpt 06/30/12
Today I gave a random guy a paperclip and the STORYclips web site and asked him to check it out. I wonder if he will…and if he will send in the paperclip. I hope he sends on back!
By the time summer had come to an end, my paperclip had been part of many exciting adventures. It has been to several “Sweet Sixteen” birthday parties, attended multiple church services, and sweated through a long band camp. It was with me for my first part time job at OFS and it was with me when school began once again. It is priceless.
When school did start back up, homework became a daily part of my life. Here is my first sophomore English Honors essay:
My Own Tempo
Perhaps life would make more sense if I were not socially inclined to rebel against destiny. It is easy to see why I prefer to rebel against practicing with a metronome. Metronomes are calm, consistent, and always right. Playing along with a metronome would make sense, but I find that life has inconsistency that metronomes cannot fix. With every step, the ground shifts beneath me and a part of myself has changed. The beat of my heart is almost never calm or consistent, and, depending on perspective, it is possible that I am never right. Unlike a metronome, I am always changing. Because of this, there are many objects that could be used to describe me at one moment but not the next. I like to reflect on present symbols while I can. Soon they may be but a memory in my past.
Stereotypical drummers are infamous for rushing or slowing down tempos kept by metronomes. There are some people that support varying tempos by insisting we must each “march to the beat of our own drum.” After giving the idea some thought, I realized how drumsticks could represent a part of my life. Drumsticks are instruments of expression. I can convey my thoughts and feelings through the patterns and sequences played with my sticks. Sometimes I find that sitting down and studying a particular rhythm until I can understand it helps me forget about my day to day worries. When I am finally able to play the music I have been working on, I get a sense of satisfaction. This feeling can also be related to my real life situation. I enjoy studying patterns in people and learning how each of us has a different inner rhythm. Since everyone is at a different stage in life, there are a lot of colliding tempos in the world.
Although these contrasting rhythms are interesting, they are also puzzling. For instance, my family gave me a locket when I was a young child. The locket was heart-shaped with a shiny kitten on it, and I adored it. This token of my family’s love intrigued me and I spent a lot of time trying to open it. When I grew older, I was finally able to get a good enough hold on the edges to pull it apart and see what wonders it held. It had nothing inside, and left me thinking, “Why is it empty?” Perhaps the locket now represents the confusion and strange void that has become part of me. I feel like a piece of the sequence my family had left for me went missing. After countless hours of reflection, I have found only one solution to the broken pattern of emptiness handed down to me: It is my responsibility to fill the locket. I must create a rhythm and write the music that needs to be heard in order to fill the hearts of those who are empty.
At some point in time I realized the tempo of my life was getting boring and redundant. I was going in circles, playing the same music at the same speed over and over again but never getting anywhere. One might say that I broke one of the primary rules of being a drummer: Do not become a robot. To make my day a little more interesting, I decided to look up ideas for my bucket list. It was then that I found the idea of carrying around a small item for a year and giving it away. I started wearing a blue paperclip on my shirt. When I first began this escapade, the paperclip, quite like my own life, was plain and uninteresting. It had a purpose for holding papers together and not much else. After carrying it with me for so long, I have learned how it has really been holding me together. This has been a reminder for me to actively search for the patterns of other people and how I can be part of the music they create.
I threw together all the stories this paperclip has brought me and played the song of life at my own tempo. However, my task is not finished yet. I must share my music with others so that they may understand who I really am. Also, I must listen to them when they express themselves so that I can connect with who they are and what we can be together. Losing my blue paperclip and then finding it again made me realize that no tempo is constant. When I give away my paperclip, not only will I be choosing to accept the challenge to listen and learn more about the recipient, but I will also be accepting that there are inconsistencies in life’s music that even the most elaborate metronome will never fix.
08/29/30
When I received my graded essay back, my teacher mentioned that I should find a name for my token of peace. At first I could hardly believe it. How was it possible, that after 297 days, I still had not thought of naming my paperclip? I spent a lot of time looking through unique names for this little guy. I wanted to find something with meaning, something with intrinsic value.
And so it will be from this day forward that his name shall be Jomei, one who spreads light.
08/31/12
Today after work I ran up to the Holland Park. It had just rained, and it was still a bit misty. I decided to splash in a few puddles. It was then that I came up with the idea of letting Jomei swim. It sounds completely ridiculous, but I think it was a nice change for him, haha! J I looked down at him in a puddle in the middle of a road and stared at our reflections. Then took him and carved his name into the dirt beside the road near a walnut tree. Paperclips leave their personal mark, you know.
09/21/12
I recently talked to my guidance counselor about making my idea of STORYclips more widely spread. I figure that the word is not going far enough in just one English room. Soon there will be flyers, more buckets of clips, and much, much more! This is going to be tough, but it’s going to be an interesting ride!
10/03/12
Today I was walking in the Holland Park today. I started skipping and even dancing on the trail because the weather is so lovely outside. One moment I looked down and I could almost see Jomei smiling, looking back at me and skipping along, always there by my side.
The next moment? –Pure torture.
Jomei. Was. Gone.
Gone, and who knows where on that trail. GONE..asjdfkjadsl;fkjiasejf;akdfsdklaf~!!!!!!!
So I freak out, and run—no—sprint, saying, “Jomei, Jomei!” and praying to God that he isn’t lost for good.
How could I be so careless? After all this time, how could I let it escape me?
Then I found him. Oh, you could not realize how much I was worried over my little light. His light was temporarily buried, lost underneath a pile of soggy yellowing leaves. When I found him, I picked him up and held him tight in my palm.
The paperclip is getting stretched out, too flimsy. It doesn’t stay very well on my shirt anymore. My teacher advised me to put him on a chain, so that’s what I’ve done. That’s how I’m wearing him now.
The rest of this STORY has been omitted...it is written for Penny and for the people that will inherit Jomei at a later time. However I will rise one last question for anyone else reading this excerpt:
The hardest hard question of all:
What are you going to do about it?
THANK YOU!
