Lesson of the day: Spend a day in the rain with people you love.

I started the week off at the doctor’s office with the words “You have bronchitis, strep throat and an ear infection. Didn’t you know that young people are not supposed to get this sick?” All I could think was, “I’m just glad I didn’t get the stomach thing going around…”. It is one of the deep dark secrets of teachers; we catch everything our kids get. If they touch it and turn it in, those germs are now ours. Whoever said teenagers don’t like to share? Because, my kids share way more than I would like them to. But aside from being sick this week, something really special happened. For the first time ever, I got to chaperone a field trip! It was pouring rain and the trip was to Knott’s Berry Farm…but I got to go! More than anything, I had 5 kids with me that were my kids, and it was special because they were my kids. It made up for all of the really hard stuff this year has thrown at me. As I was sitting watching them eat nachos and drink hot chocolate, for the first time this year I felt like I made a difference. I felt like I had done my job. I was sitting there with these 5 kids who really aren’t kids anymore and realized that sometimes life rains on us. Sometimes it feels like the rain is so strong that it is going to wash us away. But if you spend a day in the rain with people you love, the rain isn’t such a big deal. It is just there in the background of what you are doing, while you are with the people you love.