It is when I look back upon the past few years as an adult that I realize how much I have enjoyed the elementary school years of the children. The immigrant experience enriched this time in my childrens’ life for me. I am also extraordinarily grateful for the fact that the schools allowed us to volunteer in the PTA, classrooms and as chaperones during field trips. It gave me a glimpse of their lives with their friends. A chuckle, a phrase filled with colloquial nuance, or just jokes that don’t mean anything to anyone but themselves were all welcome windows into their lives.
I have had a wonderful 12 years of elementary school to enjoy thanks to the age gap of the children. My younger one finished elementary school this year, and now, I feel bereft. There is a little part of me that wants to cling to the innocence and optimism of elementary school. I have always been a clinger – to good memories, to possibility, to energy.
I am also constantly trying to reach for that infinite sense of possibility and curiosity of children. Even if it is hard. Especially since it is hard. Maturity is all very well – but I am not sure I like its jaded companions: caution and realism / pessimism, very much.
Even though the son’s elementary school years were fragmented and bizarre – thanks to the Covid years in between, the children themselves adapted beautifully.
It is in elementary school that the children were happy to see their parents volunteer in their classroom, come on fields trips with them etc, and I loved it. I took every opportunity to interact with young minds and always came far more refreshed than I expected. It is especially easy when the children’s teacher is around, for the children listen to their teachers and behave marvelously. All one has to do then is show up and take in the joys.
I got to read stories, articles, and excerpts from books to the children, and these have been some of my happiest memories in the classroom. I shall be forever grateful to it. Even as a teenager who taught in school during my summer holidays, this story-telling aspect of it has been a joy. I pray that I continue to get these opportunities.
“You aren’t just given happiness, you have to pick it up here and there all through the day.”
― Miss Read, Fresh from the Country
Nourish-n-Cherish 