Impact a Child's Life

As some of you may or may not already know, I am a substitute teacher by day and fitness professional by night. I often wish that my I could dedicate all my time to my business but understand the nature of what needs to be done.

This particular day I was very unmotivated to substitute. Those of you who don't know how it works here's the breakdown; you need to visit an online job posting site frequently to view and accept available jobs. Some jobs are much more enticing than others depending on the district you are approved to teach in. This can become quite nerve racking as some jobs appear and disappear just as quick, as there are hundreds of subs looking for the best schools in the best district.

Well it was a rainy, dark, and dreary day, I knew that Christmas was upon us and that the kids, no matter which grade I chose, were going to be hyped up for the holiday break. I had reluctantly chosen 2nd grade special education at a school and district I have never been before. It can be exciting and stressful having to work at potentially a new place each week, or day for that matter.

I walked in the classroom, and was already running late not knowing my way to the school and to the classroom. I was greeted by a pile of substitute plans, and feeling that this was going to be one of my more challenging days. As the day went on it turned out that these kids were really a great group of kids who were very cooperative. There was one specific incident that had an impact on me that will last a lifetime. I was told a particular child had displayed difficult behavior and violent tendencies in the past, had improved but still had some major behavioral issues especially with defiance.

We were all cleaning up the classroom and helping each other out regardless of the mess around the desks, all of the students were asked to pick up things. This one boy would not cooperate, crossed his arms, sat down and refused to help. The other teacher in the classroom said that if he didn't cooperate he wouldn't be able to attend any extracurricular activities for that day. Even though all the other classmates were eager to go to their activities, this boy said, "I don't care and I am not picking anything up." We said just the one crayon, please, show us you can cooperate just like all of your peers did.

Finally as he sat alone in the classroom, with his arms folded and a huge frown on his face, I said to him, "You know, I know that you do not feel good inside right now, it does not make you happy to be angry, miss your activities, and have a mean look and frown on your face, it hurts you. I know that this makes your belly hurt, I know this because we all want to be happy, and when we are happy we feel good and we smile, and its the right thing to do."

He glanced at me, then still with this frown on his face, I said why don't you want to help, he says because I just don't want to, I said "Well, remember at lunch when you were crying, I walked up to you and said, what is the matter, and you told me you were upset because you didn't get the right salad dressing. I went to the counter and asked for the dressing that you wanted and brought it to you and you were happy, I did that because I wanted to help you, I didn't have to do that but sometimes you do things to help other people because its the right thing to do and makes you happy."

He finally, although extremely slowly, lowered his hand and picked up that one crayon and placed it on his desk, I said great job buddy, and he was off to his activities. When he came back a short time later he was the most well behaved boy in the class. He asked me to tie his shoes several times, made a great effort to do his work, even asked me if I was going to be his new gym teacher. At the end of the day I showed them a video message to my daughter from Santa Claus and all the kids were glued to the IPOD, especially this boy and I could see that I had impacted his life this particular day.

The moral of the story is that you mat not understand why God puts you in certain situations, but rest assured that there is a reason you have these specific experiences in life that may have huge outcomes on someone's life.

Wake up and ride the wave of the day, take your responsibilities head on, understand that every situation is an opportunity to grow or impact a life, and maybe even your own life. It may seem small to you, but like in this instance, I was told that this boy had a very difficult home life, possibly an absent father. I could have been the positive male figure that he may not have ever had present in his life. In any case clear your mind and focus on how you can have an impact on life in general, your own or someone elses.