Wonder

Today’s prompt: How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?
I’m really lucky… in a lot of ways… one of these being that I make my living doing something I absolutely love. And, as a teacher, my job basically cultivates wonder for me.
My kindergarteners are five and six years old and I get to spend 40 hours a week seeing the world through their eyes. I’m not gonna lie, some days seeing the world through their eyes involves a lot of confusion, tears and hurt feelings. But some days they are just in awe of the world around them. Some days the light comes on and I can see it in their eyes, like, “Oh wow. *That’s* what she was talking about!”
I didn’t start teaching because I love seeing that spark… many teachers do and they’re better for it. To me that spark is a bonus. And I think I’m better for that. I started teaching because I love love love children.  I’d usually rather hang out with kids than adults. Most adults are so afraid and that rubs off on me. Adults are afraid of everything… failure, disappointment, sadness, anger, happiness, getting hurt, growing old…
Children aren’t afraid of anything. Sure something might frighten them from time to time, a bad dream or a bully on the playground. But they really haven’t learned how to be afraid yet. And I’d rather surround myself with that energy.
Children look at the world as a safe place. Even children who don’t come from the best backgrounds or safest neighborhoods still seem to trust that they’ll be okay. (I realize I’m only speaking from anecdotal experience here, but it’s my post so I get to decide which generalizations to use. So there.) They haven’t been conditioned yet that people will hurt you and let you down. They haven’t learned that you don’t get to be a ballerina and a doctor and a lawyer when you grow up, that you have to pick and choose because it would be impossible to be and do and have *everything* you want.

To children, everything is possible. And that... is wonder. And that is how I want to live my life. In a constant state of wonder at the fact that everything really *is* an option.

So I teach. I spend my days seeing the world through their eyes.
And I try hard to maintain their sense of wonderment with the world. I do my best to make sure that they leave our room at the end of the day and the end of the year knowing that they can be and have and do ANYTHING they want.
And I borrow their wonder and make it my own and reflect it back to them because the more wonder we have in the world, the more we believe that anything is possible and nothing is impossible, the better the world will be. And that’s the other reason I started teaching… to make the world a better place.

If you’ve been reading my previous reverb10 posts, you realize by now that I’m basically a very optimistic, naïve idealist.
And I’m pretty happy with that.