After a long day of teaching I stood outside waiting on our daily soccer game to begin. I was thinking about how successful of a day it had been– one of my students had finally started to read words and we got to celebrate together and another had grasped writing her letters in the lines. I was thinking about how even though it had been a really good day, I was ready to go home, ready to have some peace and quiet away from screaming, annoying kids.
And all of the sudden two little hands and a little body dangling from my back interrupted my thoughts. Another kid to attend to. After successfully putting him down, I realized it was one of my students I had been teaching the past couple of days.
I crouched down and said to him, “Listen, I love you and I love playing with you and hanging out with you but you can’t jump on back like that. You’ll hurt me.”
“Ok.”
And just to make sure he understood, I asked him “So what did I say?”
And his reply “That you love me.”
And in that moment, I realized how important this love thing really is. Many of these kids we are teaching have alcoholic moms, many who are HIV positive and have given up on life, and father figures are usually nonexistent here. These kids have sometimes never been loved until now.
I’ve learned that loving them is more important than my feelings of annoyance, more important than my sore muscles from one more piggy back ride, and more important than my exhaustion.
Love is the most important thing that I have to offer these kids.
And in the end love is a simple act—It can be hugs and kisses, one more soccer game when you feel like going home, a little bit of discipline, or just simply those 3 little words of I love you.
Loving them is all that matters.
