Thanks Kids

     This school year I have had the incredible opportunity to work for a nonprofit organization on a new state program which seeks to teach high school students with developmental disabilities about transitioning into adult life. I can easily say this has been the best job I have held thus far in life. From a very kind boss to enthusiastic colleagues to amazing students, it has been an experience I will never forget. Even though I am super excited to be taking the next step in moving to Poland this spring, a part of me is sad to be leaving such a great position.
     Interestingly enough,  teaching was exactly the one job I always said I did not want to ever do. Ever. Like, ever. Teaching always sounded really overwhelming and stressful to me. Really, I also just didn't think I would fit into this work very well. When I interviewed for the position last summer, I originally thought it was a position similar to case management. I thought I would be working with individual students and their families by meeting them in their homes. I do not remember exactly when I found out more details, but somewhere along the way I was told I would be teaching a total of eight bi-monthly life transition classes in public high schools across Northwest Jersey. Fantastic. The program also includes a few other projects and a lot of my time has been spent working from home; but somehow ironically, the teaching piece is what I have loved the most about this job. I remember calling someone after teaching my first class in October and saying things like "Yea, I mean, it went better than I thought it would and everyone was really nice, but I just really don't have a desire to teach and I don't want to keep this job for long." Well, several months later brings me to last Friday as I was teaching my last class in that very same school when I had a moment while writing answers from the students on the board where I thought to myself  "I wish I could just do this everyday."
     How does God do that? It is like He just reaches into your heart and molds it all around into desiring exactly what He has planned for you. Incredible. It's still a bit of a mystery to me, but somehow, God knows exactly which circumstances to place in my life to change my will right into His. I am so thankful that He has given me the opportunity to go teach in Warsaw. After these past few months, I feel so excited to bring the lessons I've learned in the classroom here to the students at the preschool. I am not saying that I will be teaching for the rest of my life, but this certainly makes my brain spin thinking of all the new doors this opens. It even inspires me to what I might be able to work on in terms of missions and ministry down the road. God is so good in that in each step of my journey, He carries me along and prepares me for the next step, even when I sometimes don't quite know what the next step will look like. It is just more proof in my heart and mind that God never leaves me, but is always, always working in my life.
     As I wrote at the beginning of this post, it has been such an honor to work with (about 60 in total) high school students. So, would you mind if I took a moment to brag on them? Okay, yea, good because I'm going to either way.
     So, there's this one young lady who is severely visually impaired, but is somehow an absolute computer wizard. On top of being one of the sweetest girls I have ever met, she does things with her computer that I can't being to wrap my old-fashioned brain around. She wants to go into editing. Incredible. Then there's this one young man who from the very first day and every class since then has walked me from his classroom, out across the yard, back into the main building, through the long hall and all the way up to the lobby when it is time for me to leave. It has never mattered to him if the day is cold, wet and miserable or warm and sunny.Why? Ummm, yea just because he loves to be a helper and a gentleman. You'll go far in life, kid. Then there's one student who is secretly such a genius that he has to shyly pretend he isn't. This kid remembers absolutely everything. He asks questions like a detective and absorbs everything anyone says. Then, when I need information like "where is your teacher?", he deliberately pretends to be unsure "um, I think she's over in that room in the black t-shirt?" Okay, yea, like you haven't been tracking her every move...I know you know everything, kiddo. If there's anything like a real-life Sherlock Holmes, it is this student. There's two students at separate schools who both really struggle to use their words out loud to communicate, but these two can somehow communicate their exact emotions better than almost anyone I know. They know exactly how to let you know what's up. Then there's this one student who will help his classmate on assignments if the aide is out of the room for some reason. He will do his own assignment and take the time to make sure his classmate is able to keep up with the class. There are so many more I could talk about, but I think you're getting the point. Amazing is the word. It has been an honor to get to know each and everyone of these students.
     Another ridiculously cool thing about these students is that although several of my lessons for them have been about working on social skills at school, work and home, the truth is that we could all be taking lessons from them about social interactions and relationships. For many of these students, complete and total honesty is their mother tongue...and bluntness (yea, they're from Jersey...we prefer directness here). They know no other way to communicate except to tell you exactly what's on their mind and exactly what they think. I love every minute of it. What seems to come alongside this blatant honesty is also an unmatched acceptance of and deep concern for others. I suspect these students may have experienced what it feels like to be put down by others and maybe this is what makes them so caring. Whatever the reason is, they hold their hearts right out in their hands for you and then just hope you'll care for it. Total honesty and total acceptance. Yea, I really think they should be the ones teaching the rest of us.
     I am so grateful for these students. Someday, I'll have to find a way to say "thank you so much for putting up with me stumbling along through learning to teach and thanks for just sharing your inspiring lives with me." I am looking forward to hopefully somehow seeing glimpses of the awesome adults these kids are sure to become. Down the road, I know exactly where to find a good mechanic, daycare teacher, hair stylist, baker, and even a phlebotomist (but actually, Nelson, I really, really don't like getting blood drawn, so can we maybe just meet for coffee some afternoon? K, thanks, buddy).