Well I have been out of the game for awhile now. It seems I lost touch of what to blog about and somehow couldn't get inspired. I have a new job now. It is a big job and everyday I am asking the Lord for guidance on what to do and where it's taking me. I have had several situations already in the last six weeks that I was not sure how to handle. And even now, I wonder if I did the right thing. But in a job like this, there is very little room to turn back. You make decisions and move forward. Part of me loves that and part of me wants to keep mulling over whatever major thing happened in the day. I have slept less than what I would prefer and my stress level is at an all time high, but I still really enjoy what I'm doing. It's all for the greater purpose of a child's education and development We tell our staff all of the time that we are helping children become who they are going to be - and that makes all of the other things seem smaller somehow... Plus I have had some funny stories along the way...
First there was the little girl who was so shocked and astonished that I used to be a cheerleader. To her it was as if she was in the presence of someone famous, like Miss America. She made me stay where I was and ran to get the rest of her friends, who of course didn't believe her so they came to ask for themselves. Celebrity status was not half bad...
At another school a little boy came and sat down by me to tell me about how many crazy stories he had because of things he had seen in his long 5 years of life. I knew right away that this would be good so I got out a piece of paper and began to draw as he spoke. One time he got a giant keychain that said his name on it at a pier so I drew a giant keychain and a pier. On this same pier, he saw a man balancing a bicycle wheel on his head, so I drew that. Eventually, this little one caught on to the fact that his words were becoming pictures on my page so he would say something and then ever so subtly look down and over onto my paper to see it appear. It was priceless. He was mesmerized and carried on for half an hour about juggling torches and stars flying in the sky and what he wanted to be when he grew up (he wants to work on a pier).
There is another tiny Kindergartner, who always seems to have dirt on his shirt and food on his face. He still has little puffy hands and doesn't stand more than two and a half feet off the ground. He was in a lot of trouble when I got to the school so I asked him what had happened. He went on for fifteen minutes about the whole situation where a kid had taken a ball away from him and ended with "so I pushed him on the ground, shoved his face in the wood-chips and pounded on him for awhile" I almost died. It was all of my strength not to laugh hysterically.
A sweet, very quiet 2nd grader was playing with dolls when I sat down to accessorize them with her. She was gathering them out of the bin and picking out outfits for each one, complete with matching purses and shoes. When all of a sudden she pulled one doll out who had obviously been through some sort of life crisis - she had a buzz hair cut and was missing one leg and half an arm. The 2nd grader looked at the doll, then looked at me and said, "Man, she's having a rough day"
My job is crazy and I feel like I am all over the place, but the moments when I get to sit down and listen to a kids are priceless. More stories to come... Until then, take a minute and let a kid just talk to you. They're hysterical. And they have a lot of valuable things to say :)
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