My Two Cents Day was an unimaginable experience. I had high hopes for this event but never exceeding my expectations. Walking from my last class of the day and into the grand hall, my heart began to pound. From about 20 feet away, I could see the flashing lights down the long hall. I started walking faster; I knew something amazing was ahead for this event. A smile formed so big on my face. By the time I got there it was everything and more than I pictured for Stockton’s My Two Cents Day. My hyping it up in all of my classes for the last few weeks was not in vain. The first people I saw was my team leader Angelo and one of my first friends I made as a freshman, Ar-Rasheed. They were in the first picture of the day.

The furniture that seemed to be permanent was specially removed for our purpose with a witty sign hung above the hall that read: “We sold our furniture to pay off the national debt.” People’s reactions were priceless! The lights were perfect, the photo booth was set up as promised, there were Up to Us trademarks everywhere! People who had contributed to the event even had a table set up to help their cause as well. The My Two Cents graffiti wall was being run by one of our Student Senators. The television was set on the website Uptous.org to display the competition. That definitely helped with motivation. The amount of traffic that came through the Grand Hall was significant that day and I was quite surprised. My friends from all different organizations that I’m involved in were already there helping people to take the pledge. I was proud to see how my friends really stepped up to help my team with this huge event. Maryam, another committed team member of Up to Stockton, realized that standing in one place was not enough to get the word out about the event that day. I decided it was time to travel a bit to get this party even larger. I suggested the downstairs cafeteria to spread the word to others about the pledge and our event. She concurred and we were on the move while the men of our team stayed to hold down the fort. We decided to not leave until everyone in the downstairs cafeteria was aware of our national debt and the event upstairs. We were successful.

Although everyone we told became aware of the national debt, not everyone had a Facebook account. This was a challenge because without Facebook, there was no way to prove that we were able to reach them. That was the biggest challenge throughout the day. Speaking of challenges, another one was getting students to pass on our cause by word of mouth and another was getting stubborn people to even listen to us after our third word. For a few seconds it took a toll on my confidence, but I told myself to get back on the horse and I bounced back by talking to more people.

The day progressed with laughter and music and activities to the maximum. How could I forget that Abe Lincoln (team member, Brad Ross) was one of our main attractions, and really added to the effect. Louis, another team member, was the MC of the day helping to attract the ladies and some curious guys. Angelo, the team leader, was inviting more entertainment and made sure everything ran smoothly. When Maryam and I came back upstairs, there was an entire dance team (Stockton’s All-Starz Dance Team) ready to perform! I was delightfully surprised of course; this would help bring more traffic and attention to our campaign! Great news: it did! I got a snapshot of them to record that they were there. After that things just continued to progress. The Stocktones went on. After that Stockaccapellas went on, and then it was Up to Stockton’s time to dance. You really couldn’t beat the great music that was going on! It was great and the day couldn’t have been better.

It didn’t really faze me how much the other teams might have surpassed us pledge-wise. I was just having a good time while seizing every opportunity to spread the word about our national debt. That was what was important. That is why Up to Stockton keeps pushing forward for success in our campaign. I hope these pictures give you a glimpse of our retransformed Campus Center Hall on My Two Cents Day. Check out what The Press of Atlantic City had to say.