Perspective

My kids have a way of putting my life into perspective. The last few weeks have been really hard on me emotionally, and without boring everyone with all the details I am just going to say that my kids have forced me to be stable, which has made me get up, deal with everything and keep going.

I have them do journals maybe once or twice a week. I try to think of a topic that is really simple, and that they all can relate to so that they can just get a lot of practice writing, and not worrying so much about structure, spelling etc. I just want to teach them to get their thoughts out on paper. As I was grading the two that they did this week, I was once again thrown back into reality of how blessed I am.

The first journal topic was on the 100th day of school, and I had the students write about what they would do with $100. Most of them were very funny, these kids really think $100 is more like $100,000, so they wanted to buy houses, cars, go on vacations and things like that. One of my students wrote this: "If I had $100 I would be rich, and I don't want to be rich, I just want to be an ordinary kid. So if I had $100 I would give the money to poor people who don't have enough food or clothes so they could be warm, and I would keep doing this until I had $1 left, and I would keep that for myself."

Wow. I pay $100 a month to have a phone, cable TV and internet in my apartment.

The second journal that stood out was when I had the students write about what they would do if they found a magic wand. My little gem whose mother passed away tragically last summer wrote: "If I found a magic wand I would get a big bed to sleep in, and have a mom and dad."

I was floored. I sat at my desk with tears falling down my face only trying to imagine the pain that she feels daily as she faces the world at 7 without her mother. I know children are resilient, and that she will succeed despite this, because she possesses amazing strength. I never thought I would look up to a child, but with her, I truly do.

I think what amazed me most about these two journals was how they truly show what is important in life. These kids are living in extreme poverty, sometimes with 2 or 3 families sharing one house. They might be hungry or cold at home, and for many school provides their most stable environment, but yet they know what really matters. Taking care of those who are less fortunate and family, among other things. I pray that I will be able to keep these perspectives as I continue to go forward in my life.