"Miss Harley"

At the beginning of the summer I got a job at Sunburst Daycare as a daycare teacher. I intended to work there for a few weeks until I found a ‘better’ job. The first few weeks were absolutely miserable. I had no idea what I was doing, and dealing with so many kids at one time was so hard. I complained about the pay, about the hours, about the job in general.

Yesterday was my last day as “Miss Harley”, and as I walked out the doors, I was crying because I didn’t want to leave! What changed my mind about being a daycare teacher? Maybe it was the fact that I felt deep within myself that I was MEANT to be there this past summer. Maybe it was the faces of the children, each one so precious, with light radiating from their whole being. Once I saw past the difficulties the children brought, I realized how precious each child was. I couldn’t get enough of them. I wanted so badly to make a difference in each of their lives. Maybe I changed my mind about the daycare because I realized that these children need a strong person in their lives, to teach them, and more importantly to love them.

I learned more about life in the past few months than I have ever learned. Children. They are a huge blessing to us as adults. We must watch them, and learn from them; Their innocence, the kindness, their ability to see things in new perspectives every day. They are so ready to learn, we just have to teach them in the right way. (But they are really the teachers…)

Some of the children are facing terrible battles, battles no child should ever have to deal with. Their strength is AMAZING.

I often found myself feeling guilty for how lucky and blessed I have been in my life. I want to give back to those who are not so fortunate, I want to take their sorrows away, and help them find happiness.

Working with the children all summer was the greatest blessing I could have ever asked for, I would never trade a single day of my time.

Also, Children are hilarious. They made me smile and laugh everyday. To prove it, I’ll share some funny experiences and things I have heard the children say;

-One boy told me this story: Miss Harley! This is a trueeee story, I promise. My friend went into a house full of dead people. He looked under the table and a ghost pulled him into a hole. When he came back out, he was a werewolf. BUT, that’s not all Miss Harley. His grandma and grandpa came and looked for him and they got turned into tornadoes. His brother and sister came, and they got turned into worms in the ground, and THEN his mom and dad came and they got shipped to London to become slaves. That is really true Miss Harley.

 

-An upset little girl: Miss Harley!!! She will not share being the fairy princess in the game. She has been it for a long time and she needs to let me be it now!

 

-A conversation between two little girls doing a coloring page:

1: No I don’t want you to color that right there!

2: Well that is the sacrifice you have to make if you want our paper to have the diamond sparkles on it!

1: Okay fine.

2: See, now we can have those diamonds and our paper will be better.

 

-I asked the class what they did over the weekend:

One boy: Well I walked past this house and a clown head popped out of it like this *does a little jump*, and he had a big knife and he was not happy.

 

-I overheard this conversation at lunch:

Boy 1: Last year this girl came to daycare and she kissed me on the hand, the cheek, AND on the lips.

Boy 2: Really?!

Boy 1: Yeah, and you want to know what I said?! I said….that’s disgusting.

 

-One kid came to a sliding stop on his tricycle right in front of me, tipped his ball cap, and with a wink said “Hello there Miss Harley.” And rode off again.

 

-One boy at lunch: Yeah I’ve got two girlfriends. They don’t know about each other, and I have to keep it that way.

 

There are so many!! I could go on and on. Those are just a few funny things that happened within the last week….So you can imagine how great my summer has been! I’ll miss those kids J