And it's coming! I can't wait to see my friends, to run screaming into their surprised arms and yelling "I missed you!" and then laughing like the true dork I am. It's going to be blissful. It's going to be amazing. And it's actually going to happen.
One of my kids said the craziest thing today. It actually took my breath away. I was truly shocked. It was one of those moments when I was totally thinking the wrong way. But I really don't think anyone can blame me.
You see, I had two children in my Homework Room at the time. It being the end of December, most of my kids get less homework the week before finals for the High School kids. The elementary kids just get a few pages of homework, easily finished with Miss Kristine in about 10 to 20 minutes if they actually pay attention and try. As a result, there were not as many kids in my room the whole day, which was nice.
The two children at this time of the day included Shamar, who was a tendency to stay all day if he can possibly find a way, and one of my new kids, Johnny. Shamar has a crush on a girl named Cindy, who comes to my tutoring occassionally. She wasn't there today, though. Shamar is always asking if Cindy is coming, and if he sees that she is signed up on the sheet, he will try to goof off so that he can stay in the Homework Room, much to my avail. Somehow the topic of Cindy came up, I think Shamar asked where she was, and I asked him if he liked her. He denied it, of course, but he was blushing and smiling. I pointed this out and he just shook his head.
At this point, Johnny, the second grader, butted in. "Cindy? Who is Cindy?" Shamar continued blushing and just said, "Some girl who comes here."
"A GIRL?" cried Johnny. "EWW! Girls have cooties!"
"What are cooties?" I asked with a smile, knowing this was going to be interesting.
There was a continued "EW" from Johnny as he looked down, then he muttered something to himself.
"What?" I asked, noticing that Shamar was still blushing. This kid had it bad.
"Sometimes girls dig in their thingie," Johnny said.
I was shocked for a second. What had this little kid just said? I looked at Shamar, who was doubled over, laughing so hard I knew he was going to fall out of his chair any second now.
"Um, what is that? How old are you again?" At this moment, I was so at a loss, I forgot what age he even was. Then I remembered.
"Thingie. You know..." he paused, and I turned to look at Shamar, laughing because it was so crazy what had just happened. Johnny tried to continue. He pointed to his nose. "Thingie. Your nose."
"Oh," I said, laughing.
"They do that so they can give us cooties. Girls are so gross!" Johnny started freaking out, jumping out of his chair and yelling "Ew! Cooties! Ew!"
Shamar continued laughing, having offically fallen out of his chair and he was now rolling on the floor. "Say that again. Thingie."
This continued for quite a while. Poor Johnny did not hear the end of it as long as Shamar was there, the fourth grader yelling "Say it again" to the confused second grader who did not really understand why it was so funny. He did, however, keep asking us not to tell other people.
"I don't want people to know I said it," he said. I just laughed. It was a little too late, since he kept repeating the whole line for Shamar to laugh at. I told him not to, that he should ignore Shamar, but after a while, it was just too funny.
Back to my rant about the kids and their homework from earlier...
On Friday (thankfully, a day I will not be at the library) they get a giant packet and are told to bring in back in two weeks, finished. So as you can see, the kids are freaking out, because they are getting this giant packet, and I won't be around for the two weeks. Awesome for me. Freaky for the kids. But really, what did they expect? They've done their homework by themselves every other year, why does this year have to be such a big year? You see, these kids have come to rely on me, to expect me to be there, and when I'm not, they freak out. "I can't do!" It's as though I've been standing on the cliff, helping them the whole time, and when they turn around, I'm gone. Suddenly, they can no longer take that plunge they've been doing everytime before.
Even so, I'm still leaving. So hopefully these kids learn to jump. Or someone will push them over anyway. Meaning they will get an F. Which, sadly, has been a norm their whole life, and wouldn't be anything new. When I come back in January, my new goal will be to change their perspective. As long as they improve their grade, even going up to a D, they have not failed. They are succeeding. After all, it's the little steps in life that finally get us to our goal. Only a lucky few get to take the taxi cab, and that's usually because they know the driver.
Okay, enough of these silly comparisons. Time to go to bed.
P.S. I don't have cooties in my thingie, if that's what you are wondering.
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