smith

Blog community, meet Smith. Smith, meet the blog community. Smith sits on top of one of my bookshelves and looks down upon my room... So why am I writing about my sock monkey?

The reason is this. It's not really about Smith, but more about what Smith represents. I've been thinking a ton about my future. You'll have to bear with me the next few months as I question my future, and wonder what it holds. The fact that I'm graduating in May causes me to think a lot about it. And my sock monkey (among other things) has caused to me consider something - kids. Granted, I'm nowhere near having my own kids, but I've been thinking a lot more lately about how much I enjoy kids, and I enjoy their activities. My sister-in-law has been telling me this for quite some time, probably ever since I met her, that someday, I would work with children. I never bought into the idea. I think all the babysitting I did as a young teen kind of turned me off to the idea. I was a nanny for a while, but that wasn't the greatest experience either. But I keep coming back to this idea of working with children... Even in wanting to open a children's bookstore... Sure, it was initially about my love for children's literature, but the more I talk about it, the more I get excited about getting to interact with kids... Watching them learn, seeing them imagine... So great.

So Smith seems a bit of a constant reminder of this thought. I began to think about what sorts of "careers" I could pursue in working with little kids. Day care doesn't seem to interest me that much. Maybe working in ministry somewhere with kids? That seems like it'd be too many meetings, too much planning, not enough interacting.

The thought that keeps occuring to me is teaching. For a while I had thought about teaching English to high school students, and even about teaching at a collegiate level. However, the thought of teaching little kids seems kind of appealing. Like, what if I were to become an art teacher for kindergardeners? My cousin's husband does that for a living... He's so gentle and seems like he has such patience. But how fun would that be? Or what about teaching music to little kids? I remember being in like 3rd grade, and getting my first "recorder". So great - my parents were probably annoyed to death by it though...

Anyway, I know my "career interest" seems to change on a weekly basis. There's just so many things that interest me! Therefore, I'm using this as a sort of sounding board. Maybe I'll eventually land on something. But I love it when some sort of new interest is sparked - so thanks Smith. Thanks for reminding me of the funness (and yes, I've made that a word) that children can bring, and keeping an open mind to a possible future working with kids.