A Creative Award

[travisleit01]

I have to give an Award speech for a student in my speech class. This woman is 32, has 1 child, and has had a really rough life - ranging from a mother dying early, to an abusive father. She has fought and overcome all this to return to college to get a degree in Art History. She has fought against domestic abuse and raised her child to know that abuse in any form is not acceptable.

I have to present her with some symbolic "trophy" or award - and some kind of visual representation. I am trying to think of something creative, like a band-aid, because she has had to cover up wounds and heal, or something like that. But I am running on empty tonight. Any creative minds?

[SOteric]

1. How about a rock

For standing firm in the face of even the roughest weather and over time. :shrug:

[travisleit01]

2. Cool

I like it - I could probably use a sharpie to write her name on it, or something like that?

[roughsatori]

3. Just some brainstorm ideas here

I have had a life a bit like the one you describe. Once a friend, after I went back to school, gave me a flower bulb in a small pot filled with stones. I just had to water it until it flowered. I am very cynical and not much of a softy, but when she told me of how she symbolically meant the rocks and bulb that would grow as a metaphor for me, it did touch me.

I would take the band-aid as symbolizing that I was still "sick" or "weak," but that is me. Another friend of mine who is an atheist, but had a very horrible life that he got himself out of kept a tiny plastic tacky Buddha as his personal charm symbolizing inner sanity.

Then off the top of my head: caterpillars turn into butterflies, a favorite trans-formative story is about the ugly-duckling turning to a swan (the Jungian in me loves it, maybe you could find the story on the net and print it out for her on nice paper). Or you could give her one of the better translations of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" (That is a favorite of mine and might appeal to a person studying art history). Sorry for rambling. Good Luck.

[travisleit01]

4. I think the flower pot idea is great.

And it incorporates a lot of what I was thinking, the rocks - strength, the bulb - life, growth (her children), etc. Thank you!

BTW - The band-aid idea was just a bad suggestion to let everyone know what I was thinking.

[roughsatori]

5. I know you were using the band-aid idea to spur us to thought

I didn't want to offend you and actually deleted it and then put it back in just to show how it worked for me. I think it is great that you are asking for ideas to do this.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

6. How much time do you have?

I need to cogitate on this one... but I do like the rock idea.

[travisleit01]

7. Well

Pretty much til the end of the day. The speech is tomorrow morning. Sorry for the short notice, but I thought I could come up with something creative before now!