Chapa Middle School’s recent Coffee House offered enthusiastic participants the chance to open their lives and thoughts to their peers in a comfortable, friendly setting. Chapa 7th-grader Sedona Grover was among those participants in the new experience. (Photo by Caroline Salas)
by TAYLOR KING
Special to the Hays Free Press
When I first walked in, I saw that our regular library had been transformed into a comfortable coffee house setting. The lights were dimmed and lamps of various shapes and sizes had been set up everywhere. People, adults and children alike, were sitting around, talking quietly. Some got up to get hot chocolate and cookies from the back.
Then Joël Johnson, a seventh grade English teacher, announced that the reading would start soon. The stories were all very diverse. Some short, some long, some happy, some sad, but all were very interesting. They took us into the minds of many middle school students, a place one doesn’t get to visit often. The stories were all very powerful. They really opened my mind to the lives of my peers, the lives they’d never share at any other time. I heard about broken hearts, shameless addictions, and a parent’s effect on a child’s life. I very much enjoyed it, and hope to go back next time.
(Editor’s note: is a 7th-grade student at Chapa Middle School)
