Nuts and bolts of life

In the second grade I had a project to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. We were all responsible to paint a paper leprechaun and buy brass buttons to put on the joints so he could have movable arms and legs.

The teacher told me to tell my mom and dad to buy me the brass buttons during the weekend and bring it back on the following Monday. I didn’t want to bother my parents to get the brass buttons, and I didn’t know how to explain to them what I needed. So I walked outside to the backyard and headed for my Dad’s shed. I picked out some jars.

The jars had nuts and bolts in them. So I had the idea to make my leprechaun’s joints move with the nuts and bolts instead of brass buttons.

My teacher was so pleasantly surprised and impressed with my nuts and bolts moving leprechaun that she made me show it in show and tell to the other 7-year-olds.

Wouldn’t it be neat if American jobs were like that shed, and all we had to do is go into our country’s “shed” and find new ways to use our “nuts and bolts”?

Like that leprechaun who was able to move with them, we will be able to move our academic and professional arms to a “show and tell” in America’s employment rate. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! AMY BETH SAWYER Little Rock