Jay (part 2)

"Something about Mr. Ahmed though– is that he just does not understand how much he means to the kids."

By Students of NYC

September 29^th, 2023

We showed up at the Battle of the Boroughs, and there he was, wearing a “Mayor” shirt, “Mayor” hat– we were like, “We all know you’re the Mayor, bro.” We had just won the semi-finals so we were ready. But this was the finals. It felt really posh. We had jerseys, everything was on point to a T. We had official X-boxes, we had official gaming chairs, nice gaming keyboards and monitors, everything. The prompt was about how to create a community in NYC. So we started brainstorming– and already, the brainstorming was crazy. My teammates were just spitting straight facts. We were all communicating, everything was flowing. Esra, Enrique, they were on a roll. Jolin is an amazing builder. I was just there for the emotional support, I'm going to be honest. But we decided to focus on food trucks and culture. We built Haitian food trucks, Ecuadorian food trucks, Guatemalan, Moroccan, we really tried to push in the inclusivity since we all were all of those cultures in our group. We all incorporated everything. Food is culture, you know? Food is love.

When all the boroughs were presenting their builds, we were like, oh my God. These other borough’s builds are so good. So-and-so was so good. Oh my God, we're not going to win this. So now me, Enrique and everyone else are all stressed. We’re in a circle. We were trying to dance the stress off – because in between presentations they’d play Mario music. Then all of the sudden I hear a scream. I'm like, what are you screaming for? And then I realized they called our name. They said BROOKLYN won the championship! Esra– she threw the chair back and it fell! We ran up to the stage and Eric Adams handed us the trophy and we were like holy crap, we really won this. We really won.

I thought we’d get a trophy and call it a day. But they gave us these champion jerseys. We were so excited. We get free jerseys? Then, they give us these nice bags. But they were heavy. So we opened them, and inside there was an X box S. I was like, wait, is this for us? Is this really ours? They gave Mr. Ahmed twenty gaming chairs, twenty tables. Nintendo switches! But that X box. It was unreal. I didn’t know how I was going to get it home though, I’m not going to lie.

Mr. Ahmed probably never dreamed this would all happen when he started this club. Something about Mr. Ahmed though– is that he just does not understand how much he means to the kids.

I would not be where I am right now if it was not for Mr. Ahmed. And he doesn’t want to accept this at all. And it’s annoying! My first year of Minecraft club just set the stage for my entire high school experience. I never would have imagined high school to be this way. Like, I've been in two documentaries. I would never have imagined being this engaged, this excited.