i don’t know if i’ll ever really get used to how much i am seriously in love with my life. today was super neat. overwhelming and overflowing with happiness and gratitude and reassurance and some of the best children i’ve ever met.

i had my first day on the communicare job and got to try my luck at the prendwick centre. i used to think 3 hours was an impossibly short time to get to know and fall in love with 30 children. it’s not.

it is a different kind of magic that you experience when you connect with an infant, to when you connect with someone who is two, or seven, and different again when they’re ten. in the past year i thought i’d really found my place with 2-4 year olds but i think today i surprised myself. or i think maybe it was the children who surprised me.

children approach you in different ways, and it’s always crazy enchanting, no matter how old they are.

• i met jackson (5), who is cheekily disobedient and yells “NEVER” when you ask him to do anything, who drew a black circle and claimed “the world is dying, because the plants are gone,” who also sticks to me like glue during red light green light and came over to surprise me with a hug and a unexpectedly solemn “i really love you.”
  
  
• i met natalie (9), who can write chinese characters i’ve long forgotten without a second thought, tells a lot of impressively memorised jokes, is in love with arts and crafts (pictured over) and whispered “i wish i was in kindy” when i told her i worked at the chinese school she attends as a kindergarten assistant teacher.
  
  
• i met tamson (7), who hurt her knee and cried because jackson wouldn’t share magnets, and cried again when the others didn’t want to build a castle with the jenga blocks, and again when she asked me if i would please come outside to play with her.

children are always brave enough to come to you, sometimes in tears, or in laughter, or only a shy smile from the corner of the room; but every time they have nothing to give but love, and expect nothing from you but a partner in their own huge journey in discovering the world and discovering themselves. all they want is your interest and your trust, and i can’t think that this would ever be too much to ask. i would spend every day of the rest of my life trying to make their day and i’m so much more than thankful that that is exactly where my future is headed.

today i was a sister, a mother, an educator and as their equal, a friend. with children, the concept of ‘getting down on their level’ irks me to heck and maybe i won’t instantly earn their respect through fear but i refuse to separate myself as superior just because ‘i am the leader and they are the child’. these are real, amazing, incredible people and they have everything in the world to share and to teach. i dreamt, i created, i consoled, i shared, i played. i think because i put all of my heart into getting to know them all, i was super rewarded by their own affection. they listen and they come to you because of love, and i loved every second of it. <333

when i left today i said goodbye to a girl in tears, i was smothered in hugs from all corners of the playground and a “do you know how much i love you? THIS MUCH!” i had five amazing new friends walk me to the office to blatantly demand my room leader to roster me on forever, and my heart strings were infinitely pulled in three dozen directions when they loudly complained because i didn’t know when i’d be back to this particular centre. i waved two girls goodbye with their faces pressed up against the glass door and i left incredibly light-hearted and super reassured. it was a really perfect first day. :)

these children and this job, and all the children i’ll meet and all the jobs i’ll ever have in education, they’re the best thing that have ever and will ever happen to me and i never want to stop. lately i’ve been thinking about how busy my life has gotten and how fast everything is happening and how much i want it to slow down. i’d give up peace and quiet in a heartbeat to have more days like today; it’s not even a choice.

thanks, universe. :3

today i met a little boy called william. he:

• is almost four.
• has a cold because he woke up at 5am to play in the puddles with his pajamas on. 
• can run really fast, but not as fast as cars.
• has two bikes, a pink (faded red) one and a blue one (from nanna). the  pedals tickle.
• really wants a pink ‘big boy’ bike for his birthday.

i met him walking up to the crowded bus stop on the way home from a (really fantastic!) de-briefing/social session for homework help. his dad was carrying him when i looked over and smiled and heard him say, ”daddy, i want to talk to her!”
his dad smiled back at me but said, “maybe she’s tired, she looks like she’s been studying.” 

NATURALLY i went and said hello! and we talked all the way on the bus home!! william asked, “please can we sit next to her?” and told me “you can sit right here!” when i said goodbye and how nice it was to meet the both of them he said “yup, and you can come over tomorrow!” his dad even remembered my name and everything and was lovely. today was a brilliant day :3

i wish i could make this kind of connection with every kid i meet. i’m feeling really lucky at the moment that i’m both at a place and headed in a direction where i can at least try. every day. it makes me so happy. <3 <3 <3

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