Birthday
Today was a birthday celebration. Only when you’re that young do you enjoy getting older. Enjoy it while it lasts kids. At six, birthdays are all about having fun, being celebrated, being showered with presents, seeing the flashes go off as people snap pictures, and running around on a sugar rush. The kids had a great day. It was everything a birthday celebration day should be; classes were canceled, gifts rained down on them, they ran around, used a teacher as a jungle gym, and ate pizza and cake until they threw up and then ran around some more. I’m twenty years older then them and today I was feeling my age.
In all the birthday hullabaloo one kid didn’t make it to the party, his name is Jonny and he’s in none of the pictures. As they were being snapped he lurked in the hallway or sought refugee in the classroom. Nothing we could do would get him to come join the party. As I stood getting my picture taken with the rest of Duke, I watched Jonny dodge from one door to another refusing to come down the hallway as I motioned, beckoning him to join his classmates. Why? Because he was upset he lost a sticker. How do you explain to a kid in a second language that it’s okay? That loosing a sticker isn’t the end of the world. But to a kid who is normally praised for doing well, who has never gone to school before these last two months, and who doesn’t get scolded at home it really was the end of the world. I found it funny growing up that adults seemed to forget what it was like to be a kid. As kid, I thought I wouldn’t be like that, I would remember what it was like to be kid. Standing there, trying to figure out how to best handle the situation it hit me I had forgotten what it was like to be a kid.
Kids are amazing. I really love working with kids. I’m not positive I am a good teacher, but I definitely enjoy working with kids. I never know what is going to happen. I love their raw, exuberant energy. They’re characters. It’s one of the few times in their life they are unaware of social pressures. They get to be themselves, un-judged and free. They all have such distinctive personalities, and some odd personality quarks that are unforgettable. They’re great.
Another thing that is make me feel older is that some of my friends are having kids. This last week or so I found out an old high school friend is married and just had a baby. While another college friend just had a baby girl. It seems strange. I couldn’t imagine having a kid right now, but then again I’m not in a position to have one. Well, everything in it’s time and place. Right now I’m just enjoying being an old spinster who gets to spend her days teaching kids, “A, a, apple.” The nice thing about getting older is realizing how precious it all is and knowing loosing a sticker isn’t the end of the world.
In all the birthday hullabaloo one kid didn’t make it to the party, his name is Jonny and he’s in none of the pictures. As they were being snapped he lurked in the hallway or sought refugee in the classroom. Nothing we could do would get him to come join the party. As I stood getting my picture taken with the rest of Duke, I watched Jonny dodge from one door to another refusing to come down the hallway as I motioned, beckoning him to join his classmates. Why? Because he was upset he lost a sticker. How do you explain to a kid in a second language that it’s okay? That loosing a sticker isn’t the end of the world. But to a kid who is normally praised for doing well, who has never gone to school before these last two months, and who doesn’t get scolded at home it really was the end of the world. I found it funny growing up that adults seemed to forget what it was like to be a kid. As kid, I thought I wouldn’t be like that, I would remember what it was like to be kid. Standing there, trying to figure out how to best handle the situation it hit me I had forgotten what it was like to be a kid.
Kids are amazing. I really love working with kids. I’m not positive I am a good teacher, but I definitely enjoy working with kids. I never know what is going to happen. I love their raw, exuberant energy. They’re characters. It’s one of the few times in their life they are unaware of social pressures. They get to be themselves, un-judged and free. They all have such distinctive personalities, and some odd personality quarks that are unforgettable. They’re great.
Another thing that is make me feel older is that some of my friends are having kids. This last week or so I found out an old high school friend is married and just had a baby. While another college friend just had a baby girl. It seems strange. I couldn’t imagine having a kid right now, but then again I’m not in a position to have one. Well, everything in it’s time and place. Right now I’m just enjoying being an old spinster who gets to spend her days teaching kids, “A, a, apple.” The nice thing about getting older is realizing how precious it all is and knowing loosing a sticker isn’t the end of the world.
posted by PolskaMando | 10:03 AM
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