Balloons

Periodically, a seemingly random memory pops into my head. Recently, I started thinking about something we did in elementary school multiple times. The school released a bundle of balloons. A card was attached to each balloon with a student's name and the school's address. The idea was that if someone found the card, they could send it to the school and tell us where they found it. Then, these locations would be marked on a map so students could see where these balloons ended up.

Whenever I think about what we were doing, this comes off as a ridiculous concept. We were essentially dumping our garbage across the country in hopes that some people would return it to us. To put this another way, we were polluting the nation because we thought it would be fun if the people who cleaned up our trash told us where they found it.

The balloons with my name were never returned. That shouldn't be surprising. We couldn't obligate others to assist us when we dumped our garbage in their backyards. More importantly, there's a serious possibility that my balloons landed in uninhabited areas. It is unrealistic that every piece of our trash was cleaned up.

This might seem like a fun concept for some, but it showed that our school lacked consideration for others or the environment. For all I know, there could still be remnants of litter with my name attached that wildlife could accidentally consume. I wasn't asked if I wanted to be a part of it. I shouldn't have been forced to be a part of it. I really hope that schools aren't still doing this kind of activity. Seriously, what were they thinking?