Happy moments

I feel I have been posting a bunch of negative thoughts and I wanted to counter with examples of the happy moments I have every day.

Today I left my last morning class before lunch and as I was heading down the stairs from the teaching building, I heard an excited chorus of “Mira!!” and I looked up to see four girls from that class waving excitedly at the bottom of the stairs.  I was surprised because I had just said goodbye to them.  When I got to them I could tell they had something they wanted to do say or ask, so I waited quizzically until one of them burst “Can we take a photo with you?”  I told them “of course.”  Three of them shuffled over excitedly and tucked their arms in mine and held up the ubiquitous peace sign as the fourth girl held up a cell phone.  Their energy was infectious and I couldn’t help laughing inside as they captured every possible combination of me and them, and my cheeks began to ache from the prolonged smiling.

Although my students are all between 16 and 18, they have a different maturity than Americans of the same age.  In some ways they are very childlike: they love cute things such as gloves with big bears and rabbits sewn on, and big hand warmer pillows that look like cows and pandas.  They get excited over very small things and devour the cheesy kid songs I teach them.  However I know that perhaps many of them live a hard life at home: some grew up on farms or in small homes.  They know how to make do with what they have, and it doesn’t seem to bother them too much that they live in drafty dormitories with no heating (honestly, I don’t know how they survive!).  Now, if you are reading this blog, I hope it’s because you know me. And if you know me at all, you know that I also like cute things, I get excited over small things, and I love to laugh and to make other people laugh.  So although sometimes my students baffle me, I think they’re really adorable and I have many little moments that make me happy.  In that way, this is the perfect place for me.