Things I've Learned from Working in a Daycare

• Learn to be resilient. Don't expect to have a perfect day, expect things to go wrong, and learn how to deal with it when it happens.

• Little kids are some of the most confusing people on the planet. They can be sobbing and then realize what a beautiful day it is and want to run outside within 0.001 seconds.

• Schedules are important to avoid meltdowns on normal days.

• Kids are tough. No, really. I've seen some surprisingly quick comebacks from some brutal take downs. They're also brutally honest.
  
  
• This is probably the only job I will have had that it was completely acceptable to be barefoot.
  
  
• Sometimes, the people you work with will drive you completely insane, but other times they become your strongest support system and the people you enjoy seeing every day .

As I walk out of work on Friday afternoon, I honestly don't now how it's going to work out. I'm sure it will either hit me all at once before I even leave, or it will take me the better part of the next week to realize it.

Over the past two years that I've been a staff member here, I've learned more than I had ever cared to know about wrangling 50 kids between first and third grade, remembered how terrifying and rewarding it is to graduate from preschool and think about starting at the 'big kid school', and at only 21 years old, how bittersweet it is to be on the other end of the spectrum and put my whole preschool class onto the bus for their first day of kindergarten.

It's been an emotional ride for me, hopping from class to class and getting to know the array of teachers, each one of the kids, and most of the parents. I'm surprised to find myself going through the list of things that I'm genuinely going to miss about this job that I never thought I would, like “Bear Hunt” and never seeming to have enough of one thing or another (which was usually when I thought of it at the last second).

Then again I'm less surprised by the things everyone misses when they leave or when the children simply get older and move on, such as the post-nap cuddling, playing Capture the Flag between School Age and TASC, and all the times we found kids and teachers alike laying on the tile floors during the summer because it was just simply too hot to move. Not to mention the little girl that started calling me 'Merica... That's almost too cute to handle.

I can honestly say that this has been the most unique and possibly the most demanding job I've held. Between making baked apples in the microwave with Preschool 1, helping my Preschool 2 class prepare for kindergarten, help the Toddlers figure out how to put on their coats all by themselves and teaching the School Age Kids a few new games, (all while working alongside my older sister, my younger brother, and my mother), I couldn't have asked for a harder, more frustrating, yet rewarding and fun task along with the endless blown kisses and body slams from the kids themselves.

So as I leave, I want to thank everyone for their patience, love, and support over the years (as well as constructive criticism) and for helping me learn as much from you and the children as I hope I taught them in the time I've had with them.

I know it's only been a little more than two years, but you kind of get attached to jobs like this.  I'll definitely be making visits back to see everyone.