Today..

So today..
ahhhh, today I took a trip down memory lane. I decided since I left my other job and have taken up (hopefully) uni full time that I would look for some casual or part time work in the child care industry. Naturally I chose to visit my old preschool first and see if they would like to hire me casually. So today was my first day back there.

It's funny how things can change but remain the same as well. A lot of the staff that I knew are still there and a lot of the routines are the same, but there are slight differences as well. I feel somewhat like an outsider but I also feel like I never left.

The children that I taught have grown up and moved on to 'big school' so I had a lot of faces and names to remember, which I thought I did rather well. Even though the children aren't the same ones I used to look after, children are at the end of the day still children. They still crave the attention of adults, they still cling to anybody that seems to provide a sense of security and they still ask the same thousand questions a day. They still talk over the top of each other until the room is so noisy you find yourself yelling just to be heard by the child next to you, they are still learning to share and compromise and act appropriately in social activities. They still push the boundaries until you begin to push them back, they still require careful guidance with their behaviour and their emotions almost pushing you beyond breaking point, then suddenly turn around and smack a kiss on your cheek and tell you they love you, or that they're your friend. Suddenly nothing else matters in the world, it doesn't matter how they acted right before their redeeming moment, and it doesn't matter that they plastered a grumpy look on their face when you told them "no" or "stop", all that matters now is that moment, and you begin to wonder if life really was better as a child with no complications or obligations.

I had forgotten how rewarding working with children is. I cannot wait for these next couple of years. If all I do is my uni and play with kids for a couple of hours a week then so be it, what a great way to spend my time!