Hard to believe but don't doubt me yet! Allow me to explain:
My volunteer organizer/boss/guy-who-is-in-charge-of-an-organization-I'm-volunteering-for DUDE has another job as a general supervisor at my old elementary school. He works in an office within the office of what used to be the high school but the main secretary's desk is unoccupied. Which is where I come in. The secretary's desk is my temporary work space to do random PR stuff like advertising for upcoming events and calling local business to ask for sponsors, revamping brochures, etc. etc.
However, all that was pointless when it was lunch time. I could hear the resounding thump of the soccer ball against the wall and I KNEW that I had to go out there. I ran outside and because I'm too "weird" for my middle sister (she's a tween, it's a phase she's going to be in for the next couple of years. I pardon all the wrongs she does to me in this horrible time of her puny and temporarily-miserable life) I scampered off to the younger kids' playground to find my youngest sister. These first graders looked like a bunch of old ladies sitting around a picnic table except they'd forgotten their knitting needles and yarn and were making do with play-doh instead. I rudely interrupted their game (it's not like they remembered afterwards... I love kids) and asked for their names and yelled at them that I'd be forgetting everyone's name in a minute. That set them into hysterics as if I'd told the funniest fart joke of all time...
One kid I knew asked me to pick her up so she could pretend she was flying. That set them all off and soon it was no longer a flying a game but a game of Lets Break This Funny Lady's Back And Guilt Trip Her By Begging To Please Let Us Fly One Last Time. I'm a sucker for kids actually using their imagination so by the time it was everyone's third time flying, I'd started making whoops of pain which I called "the cries of a wild bird". Soon all the kids were whooping and by the fifth round of flying, my back pain was so searing that I let out an unearthly bellow and masked it by yelling "WHO'S A WILD BIRDY?!?!?!" They were all jumping in front of me yelling Me ME ME ME ME MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE so I hollered at them, "THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!?! LET'S FLY BABY BIRDS!"
I probably looked and sounded like some banshee set loose and the kids loved it. We cawed and whooped and hollered and jumped and ran like there was no tomorrow. A part of me was detached and yelling at my brain to save this memory somewhere because it was one of the most innocent and fun things that I'll probably experience in a long time. And for those few minutes when we were going crazy, those kids looked like they were all having fun, that they all felt included, that we were playing for the sake of playing. And that's what the essence of childhood is-- or at least in my view that's what it should be. Fun for the sake of fun.
Too soon though, it was time to leave. The bell rang and we huddled into a huge group hug before I left. These kids are so transparent that I didn't feel judged, I didn't feel that I had to pretend to be someone I wasn't. I was my crazy old self and that was enough for them. I'm radiating happiness because for the first time in a long while I feel that I have something to strive for-- to look forward to. I am motivated to graduate and get a degree and good marks and all that but seeing those kids made me realize how much I yearned to be an educator, someone who can take a kid and put a smile on their face at least for a part of their day. It gave me a picture to frame in my mind and to recall whenever I feel like the long nights and hard work aren't paying off. They've given me hope.
Sigh, I'm going to be a great kid teacher some day.
