Gratituesday.

So for awhile I have been following this person on Twitter who does this thing every Tuesday called "Gratituesday" - get it, like Gratitude + Tuesday...yeah, I thought it was clever too - and she does it to help her keep a positive outlook on life. I really like it. Anyway, she mentioned it again today (obviously, because today is Tuesday), which gave me the idea of doing the same thing, but on my blog instead. Basically, on every Tuesday you just mention/talk about something you are grateful for, whether it be for something constant in your life, or for a little thing that just happened on that particular day. And I had to agree with this fellow Twitter-person, it does really seem like a really good way to help keep a positive outlook on life :) And thus begins my weekly "Gratituesday" list!

1. Jumpstart

This Tuesday, I am particularly grateful for my job with Jumpstart at FAME (First African Methodist-Episcopal Church) Preschool, allowing me to work with adorable (but sometimes rambunctious) 3-5 year olds. I first started working for Jumpstart at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year (September), because honestly I really needed the money (the job had me working 10-12 hours per week, which was pretty good for a full-time student), and I had always known that I at least liked kids. I had no idea then just how attached I would eventually become, and how much I would grow to love kids. To give it a simple definition, Jumpstart is essentially a government-funded organization that allows for college students to come into a pre-approved preschool classroom, with kids generally from low-income or "disadvantaged" families if you will, twice a week and help them to better themselves in reading, writing, and developmental skills. Usually there will be four to five Jumpstart students per group, and there is one group per classroom. In my case currently, there are a total of four students (including me) who go in together. Actually, I think last year was the same as well...four students including me I mean. This is currently my second school year working with Jumpstart; last year I worked at a school called Tiny Tots, down in Renton, which was somewhat of a commute from downtown Seattle (especially when compared to FAME which is on Capitol Hill, about six blocks from where I live, also on Capitol Hill), but no matter.

Anyway, I thought listing Jumpstart as my very first "Gratituesday" entry was very appropriate. Like I said before, I had absolutely no idea just how much of an affect all of these little 3-5 year olds would have on me. Not only are they adorable, but they're just all so happy all the time, and believe it or not, I think they actually teach me more than I teach them. Yes, I may go through reading and writing exercises with them bi-weekly, but in the end it is them who show me how to be a better person, and how to treat others with respect, regardless of anything. Every time I walk into that classroom and see all of their little faces smiling up at me and then receive numerous hugs, all of the excess stress in my life just disappears, because for some reason it no longer matters. Even if I am stressed to the max, what with school and choir and everything, it all goes away once one little munchkin comes up to me and puts her head in my lap, or laughs with me (lately though with one of my four-year-olds, the cause of said laughter is from the constant tickle wars that go on between the two of us...she started it...).

This job has also taught me a lot about myself, and about the things I want later in life. I had never before in my life ever considered becoming a teacher, because I never thought I was really the "teaching" type. Although I think that thought could have come from this one time when I tutored a girl in high school for geometry, and she told me I wasn't doing a very good job...but hey, it wasn't my fault the girl couldn't figure out how to figure out the degree of the third angle of a triangle, when everyone and their mother knows that a triangle adds up to 180 degrees, and if the first two angles are given, then you just add them together and subtract from 180 to get the third angle, duh. Okay I'm getting off-track. What I meant to say is that working for Jumpstart has really allowed me to reconsider what I want to do with my life; granted, I still don't think about teaching very much, but now whenever I do, it's not quite as painful. Thanks to Jumpstart, I know just how much joy little kids give me, and I finally am able to understand that feeling of complete pride when you see your little four-year-old write his name for the first time. It's just great, and if any of you ever have the chance to work for a program as great as this one, go for it. Like Nike says, just do it. It's such an amazing and gratifying experience.

Happy "Gratituesday" people!

~Erin

P.S. Yes I do realize that this post is extremely ironic when in contrast to my previous one. Whatever.