The Piedmont Highlander

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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Senior girl spreads cheer

The street is empty as a mysterious figure quickly makes her way up the steps of the house. She stealthily drops a crisp envelope into the mailbox and dashes away, making sure she is not seen.

Starting the first week of school, an anonymous senior girl has been leaving complimentary notes to her female classmates at their homes. Enclosed in an envelope, the brief messages contain something the author admires about the recipient, such as a skill or personality trait and the line, “Good luck with your year and beyond.”

After having reached out to the 77 members of the senior girls’ Facebook group, asking to interview the anonymous girl, she came forward and agreed to meet only after being promised anonymity.

“I honestly don’t know when I decided to do it. I guess it was rooted in a combination of a couple factors,” Senior Girl said. “One was that with a boy-heavy class, I felt a bit ashamed that I barely knew the less than 100 girls in our grade, and really, it’s pretty fun thinking of what to say and carrying it out. It’s really not that hard to do.”

She said her process is simple, in fact. With a Google spreadsheet keeping track of whom she has written to, she types up her messages, prints them out, finds the girls’ addresses in the student directory and delivers them to their homes.Scan

“The most difficult part of it is finding time to drop them off without people noticing,” Senior Girl said. “It’s easier with people I know better because I know their schedules. For others, it’s more risky.”

Senior Girl additionally said that finding time to fit writing the notes into her own busy schedule has proven to be difficult.

“I had hoped that they would all be completed in early November or December so that it could be encouraging throughout the college application process and through finals,” Senior Girl said. “However, I have been busy with all of that too, so now my goal is to finish before February break ends.”

Sixty percent of girls have already received their notes as of December, Senior Girl said.

“I heard that there was a senior girl going around leaving anonymous notes to other senior girls and I didn’t think I’d receive one,” senior Frances Putnam said. “I was more than pleasantly surprised to read the note, as I had been going through kind of a tough time.”

Senior Marley Bratman, who received her note during the first few weeks of school, took the good luck message as a self-confidence boost.

“I think these acts are important at our school because something as small as writing two sentences to someone can change the way they feel about themselves and brighten their day,” Bratman said. “It is really rare you see people go out of their way to compliment others and the fact that this person is sending letters to every single senior girl saying such nice things is really amazing.”

Even with all the hype and praise, Senior Girl has vowed to stay anonymous.

“I feel flattered when I hear people talking about [the notes],” Senior Girl said. “ I was trying to find something that was as selfless as possible.”

In light of her goal, Senior Girl asks that if someone does discover who she is, to keep it to themselves and to reassure other senior girls that they have not been forgotten. If girls do not receive a note, she wants to make it right, acknowledging that some addresses might be wrong.

“If you never get one, feel free to contact Tatum Burnett later in the year, and I will try again to get it right,” Senior Girl said.

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