Gratefulness Round 1

I am grateful for a job where I'm able to have a significant impact on the lives of children. I don't have them for very long each day, and I don't have them for very many days in a row, but I make sure that every half hour I have them, every week day, for two weeks, is a place where they can smile and laugh and have fun. I don't know their lives, I don't know what they go home to after. It could be a loving and caring family, or it could be a life of hardship and neglect. But neglect is not something they will ever experience in one of my classes.

Yes, I do take my job very seriously, and that is part of the reason it's so hard for me to get along with a vast majority of my co-workers. It's not just doing what's necessary to get a pay check for me. It's an experience and one that I refuse to take for granted. Even as a swim instructor for two weeks, you can have a lasting impact on a kid's life. I still remember my first swim instructors - the ones that I liked best. And I remember why I liked them best; it's the very same reason I have favorite teachers. They made it fun and they seemed like they actually cared that I was there and a valuable part of their class.

It is honestly one of the most rewarding things. To watch a kid smile and laugh during your class, or to see that light-bulb moment, when they suddenly just "get it." That's the reason I keep coming back and doing this every summer. It trumps all the drama, all the frustrations.