I asked my housemate about the print and she said the artist had no political intentions when creating the piece; any political message was purely coincidental, my own projection. 

This reminded me of the thesis from Kelly Oliver's piece, that human rights discourse is always political. Does authorial intent complicate that argument? 

This little thought-train inspired me to put Oliver and Shire in conversation in my first essay for this class.

Being around the kids, I had learned that they relate to people differently than a lot of Americans (my experience too). Whereas many Americans would show *courtesy* and not necessarily *love*, the kids show love first.

“It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are, it’s what you do and how creative you are.”

—I didn’t get to know her name, but another girl said this to me. I told her, yes, keep preaching! (She also asked why I didn’t get pizza; I said, “I’m waiting for everyone else to get pizza.” She said, “Bruh, you’re missing out. You need to get pizza.” I said, “Okay.” She said, “You *better* get pizza!” and I did.)

Walking into the event, I felt scared, anxious, because I cared a lot about making a good time for the kids. I think they saw that, and responded with their own gratitude.

When we played the photo-matching game, Muzhda got my photo. She looked at me several times, then gave me the right photo. I asked, “How did you figure it out?” She said, “It’s the eyebrows!”