Did you ever just sit and think to yourself, "What am I doing here? What is my purpose in this place? Where in the world am I?"
I woke up this morning around 4:00am because the rooster on the farm was a bit confused. It was a long first week with my young & new Grade R students. Only 6 of my 17 students can understand English. I wasn't sure if I could handle one more plate of rice/beans and I've only been back to the farm for one week. After dragging my feet out of bed and getting dressed, I filled a 5L bottle of clean drinking water for the day and walked down to the school.
When I arrived in my classroom, I swept my floor carpet with a broom like I always do. I started to prepare my classroom for the day and not long after, my students began popping their little heads through the door. I heard a little whisper saying "Miss, Miss, look it's me, me here today!"
As I glanced over, I saw a little ebony face looking up at me with bright brown eyes that were lit up. A pearly white smile that stretched from one ear to the other. In this moment, it hit me. I was given the answer I was searching for when I woke up without even putting thought into it.
These children, who virtually have nothing, are some of the happiest kids I have ever met. Slowly but surely, all the negative thoughts that swarmed my head when I awoke this morning began to fade and that little smile on my students face spread to mine.
Chances are, that little student that popped his head into my classroom this morning, didn't have anything to eat before coming to school - and I'm complaining about one more plate of rice. Chances are, that student shared one pillow and one blanket to sleep on last night with 4 or 5 brothers/sisters - and I'm complaining about waking up too early in MY OWN bed. Through all this, I thought to myself: How is it that I'm the one coming to school miserable, and my student is the one coming to school happy as a bee? I think it's easy to get caught up in the frustrations that life often presents to us, but it's in these trying moments that we really need to dig just a bit deeper and search for all the things we have been blessed with.
With this, I hope you all can shake off any frustrations you may be having on this day, and simply appreciate this life and all you've been given.
Peace and love to all ♡
Allison Shade
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