Kids and Pirates

Kids are EVERYWHERE!  All over facebook, my friends are having babies.  Instagram has cute pictures of my nieces and nephews.  I feel like the world is self-populating.  Oh well.  And I'm just chillin here in Vegas, learning how to talk like...well, a kid.

I hang out with kids all day.  Thirteen and fourteen year olds, to be exact.  Sometimes they get confused on how they want to be treated because let's face it, they're in that weird age between wanting to be a grown up and still wanting to be a kid.  But I'm ok with that.  I will let them bounce back and forth as they please.  As much as I try to teach them how to be a responsible adult, I don't want them to grow up too fast.  That's just sad.

It makes me think of Peter Pan, my all-time favorite story.  My dad used to always tell me that the secret to staying young was to remain perpetually excited about things, even if they were the most mundane of tasks.  So every day (well, almost every day), I greet my kids at the door with the biggest smile you could ever imagine.  They usually look at me like I'm crazy, but I'm ok with that.  I like to see my kids, and I want them to know that just because you grow up, doesn't mean you have to be a pirate...or something like that.

My kids.  I am very humbled every time I realize the greatness of the responsibility I have to be a teacher to so many young minds.  Five days a week, I teach people's kids.  Joke with their kids.  Console their kids.  Praise their kids.  Question their kids.  Beat my head against the wall about their kids.  Gush over their kids.  Laugh with their kids.  Worry about their kids.  Keep an eye on their kids.  Learn about their kids.  Invest in their kids.  Protect their kids.  And love their kids.  Their kids truly become a part of my life and I feel that in some way, they are my kids.  As President Uchtdorf said in reference to a woman who was a teacher but longed to be a mother, "The Lord had given her an opportunity few people have -- the chance to influence for good the lives of hundreds of children and families as a teacher." (Click Here)

I don't know if I will ever have kids of my own.  I'd like to but who knows?  For the time being, the Lord has blessed me with 180+ of the most amazing kids I could think of, and I couldn't be happier.  They frustrate the heck out of me sometimes but then they turn around and amaze me with their courage and ability to pick themselves up and keep going.  I learn so much from them every day...not to mention they are keeping me from turning into a pirate myself.