Day 40

I am so incredibly thankful for the amazing personal character I saw in one of my students today. Im thankful I was able to guide her through her personal struggle and see the strength of character and amazing personal quality present in a second grader! I don't think I have ever been so proud and inspired by someone so small. When faced with a drawing lesson she found challenging (mind you she is a perfectly capable drawer) she found herself hitting a self-imposed brick wall. She was stuck, not confident at all in her self and scared to try. A place I think we have all been and can understand. When I talked to her, she completely broke down, something very out of character. We talked, I tried to re-explain the lesson, but she was just too upset. So after she left the room, took a little breather, got a sip of water, she was back! Trying again, still unconfident, but trying again! I stopped by, to see how she was doing, and even though she was doing a perfectly fine job everything kept being erased and she was even more upset. I talked her through the lesson again, trying to instill some confidence with her, she started crying again, but was able to work; so I let her work. As the class came to an end and I was collecting the lesson she came up to me, a tear in her eye, and turned in a completed lesson! I knelt down to talk to her and she gave me a huge hug and broke down again, obviously still feeling unconfident, frustrated, and unaccomplished. The amazing thing to me here is that she finished, she persevered, she pushed through all those feelings of frustration and lack of confidence and successfully completed the lesson (maybe not to her standards, but she completed it none the less)!! Later that day I went to her main class and shared her experience with her and her homeroom teacher, we were able to recognize her for her amazing strengths and in the end she was proud of herself that day!

I wish we could all harness this personal character of strength and perseverance. Sometimes I really feel like I need to find these qualities in myself, sometimes I wish others could find these qualities in themselves. I am inspired by what I saw in my young student, and so thankful I was abel to watch her preserver!