Beautiful

         Recently, I got a job working with little kids at a preschool and I absolutely love it there! It's a new adventure every day and it gives me so much happiness seeing these amazing kids every day. They have there moments but no matter how mad you get at them sometimes, you just love them because they can be so sweet. Today a worked and in the middle of it, a little boy comes up to me and says "Miss Leah, you are beautiful. I love you." I was shocked for a second. That kid said that to ME. I have never in my life thought of myself as beautiful. So I responded out of shock, "Why do you say that?" and he says, "because you are always smiling and laughing." Can we just take a second..... Not only did that little boy see something in me that I have never noticed before, but that's the FIRST thing he noticed. Guys now a days (with a few exceptions) are so into what people physically look like or what girls will do for guys that they don't notice things like that. So seeing this little boy think of someone in that way as "beautiful" just completely stunned me. We don't give kids credit enough for how much they observe and what their brains think of as a little kid and that to me is beautiful in itself. And it made my day that he said that. Honestly, saying one thing to someone can make there whole day and it makes me always want to keep smiling and laughing because if that can make someone happy or think that of me, then I will do that for the rest of my life.

         Not only did that happen, but it got me thinking of just kids in general. My two favorite things about kids are: one, they just say what's on there mind. Sure the truth can hurt sometimes, but they tell you what you think or what they want and you fix the problem right away. They don't hold it in like people do now and that's something that I wish I kept as a kid because even now I absolutely suck at talking about how I feel. So seeing a kid just saying it how it is, is amazing. And secondly, I love seeing kids the way they are because they don't know what goes on in this world. The worst thing someone could do to them is take there crayon or they could trip and fall. Adults, we see all this hatred and mess in the world. But they don't see it. And to know that they haven't seen that or experienced that is what keeps me going everyday because NO ONE should have to face some of the things people have. 

         The fun thing about kids is that they are always spontaneous. You never know what they will say or what will happen. Yes, they have a lot of needs, but when it comes down to it, all a child wants is to feel safe and nurtured and fearless. I remember when I was little that I always wanted to be held because that's where I felt safe. I wanted to be in my daddy's arms because I thought that he could protect me wherever I go. I would even have him check under my bed and in my closet every night before I went to sleep and have him stay in my room till I fell asleep. And all this worked for a while until you start experiencing things and then you find out that they can't protect you anymore and that you have to protect yourself. And you learn that as you grow older. 

        But just seeing these things around the classroom brings me back to all these childhood memories, good and bad, and it makes me realize things that I didn't when I was little. I love my job and that little boy that said that to me, meant more to me then he will ever know. 

"Oh simple thing where have you gone,

I'm getting old and I need something to rely on,

So tell me when you're gonna let me in,

I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin."

"Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane