I have sat down to write this post so many times over the
past several days and I just never could quite make it happen. I guess I felt
like that maybe if I didn’t put the words down where everyone could read them
then maybe what has happened didn’t…silly I know.
You see I grew up with a dad who was a teacher and I always
heard him refer to his students as his “kids.” I always felt like my dad gave a
piece of himself to each of his students as well so they really did become his
kids. He worried about them, he had hopes for them, he got frustrated about
things they did, he watched and supported them through all their successes and
failures. So I knew his students were really important to him. I also saw how
upset he would get when something happened to one of his “kids.” After being
around many teachers I am pretty sure most acquire a few hundred of their own “kids”
over all their years of teaching.
I thought that since I didn’t teach I didn’t really have to
worry about this. See I have high school and college students come to work for
me each and every summer. Somewhere around 150 of them, I have the duty of
hiring, training, and working with nearly all of them. Granted I work really
closely with about 30 of them but I know nearly all of them. Still I thought
that I was immune from the my “kids” phenomenon. That is until something happened
to one of my kids, note I didn’t say one of my workers, I see these kids every
day seven days per week some days I spend
more time with them than with my actual biological child.
Last weekend one of these kids was tragically killed in a
car accident. He wasn’t one of the 30 or so that I get to know really well but I
knew him I knew his really white toothed smile that always looked like it was
hiding a streak of ornery, his curly blond hair, and his kind voice. I knew all
of these so well and when his chair was empty on Saturday morning a piece of me
felt empty. I even got a little defensive because another kid sat in it on
Sunday.
The thing that made me realize how much I cared for these “kids”
is when I saw the others hurting. I had a boy on my crew who was not handling
the news well at all. All I could do is hug him and cry with him. I told one of
the other crew leaders that I think I now know what it is like to be a teacher.
That when your kids are hurting you are hurting. I waited a day or so but I wanted
my crew to know how much they really did mean to me. So I told them, I wanted
them to know that they weren’t just my employees they were so much more and
that they mattered to me.
I know this is a far cry from my typical blog, but I needed
off my chest. I guess here’s the take away…if they matter to you tell them!
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