Rough Draft

Mencos, Luis

Professor Reyes

English 100

31/ Jan / 2016

“Facebook to the Rescue”

    The power Social media is a unique and wonderful thing. It can connect people that are on the opposite sides of the word or even standing right next to you in a matter of seconds. Social media has given everyone the chance to express oneself in ways that people could not imagine, being able to reach out to not just one person at a time but to the masses. People are able to express their feeling, needs, wants, and dislikes in a matter of a few keystrokes. Social media has affected so many people for either better or worst. In my case the first time I use social media for something meaningful and significant, not just checking in to In N’ Out  or ranting about how lame the last  episode of the Entourage was. For me using social media was for the best, I was new to Facebook and the whole social media world through the phone because I just happen to upgraded to a “Smartphone” from a flip phone. I was loving life with my new little gadget and how easy it was to communicate with people online and through text message. To be able to reach to everyone I knew at the time was mindblowing to me. I thought to myself, how cool it was to be able to log in and see what is was going in the world of Facebook without sitting in front of a computer for hours.

I worked for an Afterschool non- profit organization in 2011, and one night my supervisor at the time Michelle, send me a text message saying, “Meeting with the Big Boss tomorrow 9am! DON’T BE LATE!” Once I got this message I instantly started to panic, every bad thing I did at work suddenly started to cross my mind. I hesitated to reply to her text message, because I was trying to come up with every excuse I could think at that time, just in case Michelle decided to ask me any kind questions.  After a few moments I replied with the most basic and general response I could think of, “Okay”. Yeah all that thinking of excuses and counter arguing I did in my head for what, Just to reply with an “Okay” how disappointing.  That next morning at 8:45Am, I showed to my Michelle’s office that was located in the City of Whittier, being a little nervous, and anxious of what might happen. The elevator ride up to the fourth floor of the Nixon building felt like it was never ending, finally once I did reached the 4th floor.  As I walked in to Michelle’s office the first thing out of Michelle’s mouth was, “hey don’t be scared of that text message I sent you last night, it's nothing bad,  just come on in.” it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders, I sat in her office way more relaxed and calm after that. Michelle and I started to recap how our work week has been going. Exactly 9am like if Bob the CEO of the Non-profit organization was standing right outside Michelle’s office door waiting to come at exactly on the dot. Bob made his presence felt, opening the door with some authority not even knocking or saying hello Bob just came in and sat down looking at his notepad book. I gave Michelle a look and without words just facial expression saying hey I thought it wasn’t bad. Michelle just shrugged her shoulders and made the, I don’t know face. Bob sat in the chair for a few seconds but it felt like it was entirety. Bob finally spoke and said, “We need to bring up our numbers at our schools” Bob was referring to the number of kids that attend the afterschool program. Bob explain that we are losing money every day we have low attendance and that our company is based on Governments grants that have very specific guidelines on how many children the afterschool program should be giving services too. That we need to come up with a strategy to boost our attendance. Bob said “do whatever it takes to get kids into our program.” He crossed his leg and with his pen in his had said “let’s brainstorm”.

Hours passed by and after countless of ideas being shut down, I came up with the idea that hit me like a flash lightning, I said ”what about an inner sport league, all the afterschool programs have to create a sport teams and cheer squads for their school, and those teams will compete against the other after school in the area.” Bob and Michelle looked at each other. Michelle started to nod her head in acceptance and said “it might work but we have a very small budget Luis, we won’t be able to cover all the schools for equipment and transportation”. I did not want to let this idea to die because I felt like it just might work. I told Bob and Michelle “give me two weeks to see what I can do, and how I can obtain some donations”. Bob started to write in his note pad. Stood up and said to Michelle and me, “you have two weeks”.  He walked out of the room closing the door with power. Michelle looked at me and said “I hope you have a good plan, Luis.” I gather my stuff and started to say my goodbyes, I walked out of the office. On the way down the elevator I was cracking my head on how I can I reach out to people? How am I going to get donations? A few days passed by and I still was drawing a blank on how am I going to reach out to people. The first week passed by so fast like the roadrunner running from the Wildly Coyote, Michelle was emailing and calling to check on my progress, and every time I replied with “we're on track Michelle”, ”not  to worry I’m getting some good response back”. Knowing that Michelle could not see my worried face over the phone or sense my unsureness tone when we texted. The second week came and I received a message from an unknown number saying “Luis this is Bob, I want a progress report see me in my office Wednesday @ 9AM”. I was shocked how in the world Bob got my phone number! I could not reply I knew I should, but I did not want Bob to ask me questions, so ignored it (how professional), feeling nervous, and anxious about the meeting I took to Facebook to vent like everyone else in the world. I had done what I hated the most, blasting my personal drama all over the internet, just to get a cliché response like “Hey its okay, keep your head up, (and my personal favorite) everything happens for a reason.

So I wrote the post on my Facebook, expressing my anxiety and frustration looking for donation to help afterschool children, get sport equipment (manly soccer equipment) and how dishearten it is that no big company would donate to our non-profit organization. I felt satisfy with my little rant, I even put a little angry emoji face to really emphasize my frustration. I place my phone to charge and because I was feeling so bummed like a student who study so hard and stilled failed the big test. How I was going to face Bob and Michelle on Wednesday with nothing to show. I silence my ringer so I would not be bothered, I just wanted to watch T.V in peace. A few hours passed by and after self-loathing I decided to pick up my phone and I was shocked that I had 20 notification waiting for my attention all from Facebook. In a rush I clicked on them to see why I had so many, as the page was loading I instantly thought to myself let’s see how many, “it’s okay buddy” I will get, almost making it into a game. Then the first message I read was from a high school friend named Naz: “Hey Luis, how you been? I might be able to help you with your problem hit me up bro”, than the next message from Chris: “Mencos!! Dude my family owns business out in El Monte, let me know what you needed in sport equipment, we are willing to donate to your organization, let me know how we can help. #Fuckbigcompanies”. So on and so from different people who were willing to donate or know a person that could help me with my situation, friends started to add other people to my post so they can see it as well. Than the best reply to my Facebook rant was from a person that one of my friends tagged on my feed, it said “Mr. Luis, even though I don’t know you on personal or even professional leave, I feel your frustration and dishearten towards big companies and their lack of humanity for the common folks, I am willing to donate my services to transport the children from school site to school site free of charge, so they may attend their games. I have two license school buses and an extra employee willing to help you achieve this goal (No pun intended). Hope to hear from you soon.” I was so excited and blown out of the water that I started to fist pump and do kung-Fu moves air kicking and punching! Not only because I was able to make save my ass from the big bosses, but I was able to bring what would turn out the best idea to realization. I contacted everyone through my Facebook and set up meeting dates and times. On Wednesday I took all the names and contacts with me to the meeting with Bob and Michelle, it was 9:00A.M and this time I was the one opening the Michelle’s office door with authority and making my presences felt when  I walked into that room like if I was the CEO, I laid out my plan to Bob and Michelle I gave them names of the people who were willing to donate and give their services to help us, Bob seemed happy he said” let’s get this started and let’s make magic”, Good Job Luis”. I spread the news to the other school- coordinators and how to promote this new idea to the kids of their school. Within the first week of putting out the inner soccer league idea out to the school children, the afterschool attendance number started to rise, the first week schools reported that their numbers double by the second week the kids were still staidly joining the afterschool program. A whole month passed by and the inner soccer league was in full effect. With all the donations we were able to obtain from people who reached out to me from Facebook.  All fifth-teen Elementary schools had enough to have a boy and girls’ soccer teams, practice equipment , screen printed  T-shirts, cheer squads pompons and uniforms,   as well two full size buses to transport kids  from school to school.

  Later that month I received a text message from Bob, “Luis, I want to speak to you, please come to my office tomorrow 9:00 AM sharp”. This time I responded quickly and with confidence, “I sure will sir.” (Still not a professional response but better than last time)  I arrived at the Nixon building with a little pep in my step this time. Bob told me to come in and have a seat, pointing to the gray chair, the room looked plain and dual, how I expected a robotic CEO office would look like. Bob this time said good morning and s my hand the he began to say “because of you Luis, and the inner soccer league idea the afterschool program all across the boards’ numbers went up 80%, putting them well over our target expectation and allowed us to hair new employees helping our company grow also The City of El Monte wants to recognize the afterschool program, for having an amazing community outreach and positive impact within the school district. I left Bob’s office that day with a huge smile from ear to ear on my face.  I was so thankful that social media like Facebook, gave the platform to express my thoughts being able to reach out to people I wouldn’t be able to meet them face to face. So the real hero of this autobiography was not me and half ass idea, no the real hero is Facebook for giving me a platform rant and rave that just happened to a blessing in disguise. For making networking so much easier and accessible to everyone, for me Facebook will always get a     from me.