Wake up. Go to class. Go to work. Go home. Do homework. Go to sleep. Repeat.
If this isn’t your daily schedule (disregarding life’s circadian curve balls) then you are a lucky dog. But for me (and many of my peers) this is a standard agenda, one in which I live hoping to squeeze in a night or two out on the town with friends.
If there is one thing that I have learned from college, it is that I never want to grow up.
As a young kid growing up, I was ready to be an adult. I dressed in my dad’s work clothes, applied my mom’s make-up and showcased business type propositions to my parents when asking permission for almost anything. I raced right to adulthood at times I should have been basking in my youth, and I wouldn’t have even realized it if it wasn’t for, well, my occupation.
I currently work at an elementary school in Gainesville as an after school teacher and activity leader while studying at UF. The innocuous first through fifth grade personalities I endure everyday are a mix like no other. I attend to an array of tribulations throughout each day; some girls cry when boys don’t talk to them, others sob when they do; most girls have cooties while others are the occasional “babe.” Oh and don’t forget, candy and Batman over everything. Some elementary concepts that played out in our grade school days still exist and one attribute that all these boys and girls possess, one that most of us have forgotten, is naïveté.
Some say ignorance is bliss, others say knowledge is power. I say maturity is overrated. The ignorance I see on a daily basis in these tiny humans exemplify just how easy it is to find good in every situation, yet laughing at the little things are often forgotten. For them, like it was for us, life is for their amusement. They wake up everyday, not with a memo pad laying on their nightstand, but with the short agenda to just have fun in the hours before bedtime. A bad day hardly exist in that age, and it lightens my soul each day I walk into work and see all those rug-rats cheesin’ over watching “Scooby-Doo” or because we are serving Cheetos at snack time (I mean, who doesn’t love licking post-Cheeto fingers?).
Via: rjbradley2.blogspot.com
I miss when our days were simply made up by the minute objects in life and stress was yet to rear its ugly head. I know a lot of people don’t venerate children and their air-headedness as much as others, but if there is something more rewarding than watching a child grow in character or seeing their face light up because you remembered it was their birthday and that was the best gift they could have ever received, then it is seeing these young souls admire your adult-like façade.
All kids want, just like I did, is to grow up. They look at me and they see this old, noble, wise person full of life’s greatest lessons and experiences. Little do they know that the truth is I’m just a college kid trying to learn the ropes and get my feet steady.
As a second grader life’s largest struggles lay within the realm of what your seventh birthday party theme should be and whether or not to aggressively devour all your vegetables before leaving the dining room table or continue arguing why cookies are better. I wish those were still the issues to ponder, but they aren’t. They aren’t because I grew up, just like you, and now here we are writing and reading articles. If you would have told me I would be doing this 14 years ago, I would have laughed and ran away to eat candy and play in the dirt.
With that being said, I may have a repetitive schedule full of studying, lectures, work and dealing with Gainesville towing services, but there is one thing that growing up has bestowed on me. Working with such innocent little human hearts has gifted me with the ability to love my own immaturity and open my eyes up to appreciating the small things in life once again.
But truthfully, I’m never really growing up.
Via: januaryskye
.com
