#4.25.2017

[cubbiverse]

[haveamap-blog]

I Wrote This Instead of Studying

So it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted something here on my blog, but I figured better late than never, right? I just feel like these last few weeks have been nothing but go-go-go with school work and stress and when I wasn’t going school work or crying because of how stressed I am, I was sleeping, working, or with friends. Mostly sleeping, though. I literally cannot function if I don’t get at least seven hours of sleep every night, and at that, I’m still a witch when I want to be. I prefer my solid nine or ten hour nights, not to brag or anything.

I do, however, get to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to work at the Berry College Child Development Center three mornings every week. As much as I hate waking up around 6:30 or 7 in the morning three days out of my week, waking up with a rowdy bunch of three and four year olds is one of my favorite things to do. We have a cute little group of about 14 kids in the classroom I’m in, and they are the funniest and most energetic kids I’ve probably ever met. Next to my own newphew, of course.

I’ve been working with them since January, and I like to believe that I warmed up to the classroom nicely. Now, I feel as though the kids talk to me freely, knowing when I am and am not going to be there. Even the group of little girls who were so painstakingly shy have warmed up to me, and I’d like to think of that as an accomplishment.

Something happened today at work, and I couldn’t believe that at one of my last shifts with this particular group of kids, it took this long to get to this question.

Back in August I pierced my nose. If you didn’t know that, well… Surprise! I rebelled on my first night back at Berry and did something my mother would hate and I pierced my nose. (I mean, c’mon, at least it wasn’t my tongue or my eyebrow and at least my hair isn’t a bright green or blue or pink color, right mom?!)

So, I’ve had my nose pierced for around nine months. It was irritating at first, and then I didn’t like it anymore, but now, it’s just part of my face. I don’t really notice it anymore, and I definitely am in love with it. My nose was still pierced this past January, when I started working at the preschool.

However, now it is August, and just now are kids starting to ask about it. Our class is a very observant group of three-to-four-year-olds. If something is off, they notice. If you’re missing something during an activity, they’ll tell you. One little girl in particular remembers everything you tell her. We rely on her to tell us who has and hasn’t done the class activity, to remind us when something is happening this week, and which parts of the classroom can and cannot be played in every morning.

But today, the youngest child in the class, who just turned three in January (or maybe December, I don’t remember) looked at me, and with her little raspy voice, she asked me, “Why do you have that thing in your nose?”

And for a moment I saw my mother sitting in front of me.

I just looked at her, not sure how to explain to a three year old about my nose piercing. So, I just said, “Because I like it.” (To be totally honest, after four months of being asked ‘why’ all the time, I have gotten to the point of just saying ‘because that’s just how it is’ as opposed to actually explaining why something is the way that it is. But they take that as an answer, so I mean, it kinda works right?)

And then, with eyes so full of curiosity, she touched her own nose and said, “Sometimes it hurts and sometimes it doesn’t, right?”

And without thinking I just nodded and said, “Yeah, but it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

And then every child at the breakfast table in the classroom (approximately six other kids) needed to see it. And touch in. And ask if it hurt. While that didn’t shock me, simply because they’re three and four years old, I was shocked that it took since January for one of them to ask. Especially because every day they would tell me what color my shirt was. (Spoiler alert, my work shirt was blue. It was always blue.)

So there we go. There’s my story from the Child Development Center. I hope you enjoyed this because chances are, I’ll probably have more stories about the class next year and some stories about the kids at summer camp this year!