Bittersweet...

So today was my last day of working as an educational assistant. While I am excited to go to Ottawa and move on to new things over this next year, it is a bittersweet experience saying goodbye to my grade 7 kids. Even though I was only with them for a short period of time, they made an impact on my life and have helped seal my desire of wanting to work with kids.

During the short time I was with them, I was able to start building relationships and trust between all the students. I  had so much fun being able to take my "science posse" (as they called themselves) to the library to help them learn and study for science (or any other subject they needed help with). I also loved working with a particular student who had tourettes. While it was definitely a learning experience and sometimes trying, it helped me to see that children all learn differently and with some help and guidance they can flourish. I noticed that he had an amazing imagination and talent for drawing and being able to learn how incorporate that into his subjects was a great experience.

 Some of my favourite times was when I could work with the grade 3 students. Your self esteem is never low when you are around younger kids. With compliments such as " Miss Smith you look really pretty today, especially with that big smile on your face!" or " Your clothes are always so pretty Miss Smith!" my self esteem never suffered when I was with them.  It was the best when I would walk down the school hallway and I would have both older and younger kids saying "Hello Miss Smith" or " Good morning Miss Smith how has your morning been?". But I think the best part throughout my whole (very short) time as an E.A. was when I was able to help 3 girls in my grade seven class with some personal problems involving bullying and other matters. It was then I realized that this is where I am supposed to be. This is what I was created for. While it was only a small glimpse of what I want to do, I realized that God has given me a passion to help kids for a reason. Even though I am not sure what exactly that is going to look like, whether I will be a teacher, a social worker or even a counselor, I know at that moment something solidified in my heart that I am on the right path.  

So, as I was saying goodbye yesterday and this morning I was giving them all personal cards and treat bags thanking them for letting me be apart of their class, when out of the blue all the grade 7 girls came up and gave me big hugs and told me they would pray for me as I go to Ottawa next year and that they wished I could come back next year. At this point, if you know me, it was a little hard to keep it together :) But then one of the students made me burst out laughing because they said " Ya, I wish you could come back too Miss Smith. Mainly because you are young and not old. You are more apart of our generation than the old generation. That means you can relate to us better". Oh those kids made me laugh everyday. They truly do say the funniest things.

Despite the fact that I am sad that I am leaving these kids, I know God has something bigger and greater planned and I am excited to see what it is going to look like!

The "welcome to the classroom" card the kids made me

 A gift a student gave me this morning

its a Willow Tree Figurine called "love of learning"