What made you smile extra hard this week? Can you pick out one thing that happened to you that gave you a special light inside? A light filled with a pure energy to tackle head-on whatever was coming your way?
For me..
At work yesterday there was a kid violently crying and throwing a fit with his nanny/babysitter. I, being at work and minding my own damn business( I am not getting in trouble for getting involved in something. I need my job.), continued on sweeping up some leaves and walked on. He was serious enough that a security guard walking over could do nothing to quiet his rage so I definitely was avoiding that mess. Also, I had time to kill doing productive work. So I’m walking back towards one of the work rooms and the nanny looked exasperated coming out of the laundry room. I see this kid on the floor crying through the door and the lady looks at me and says “can you just go in there and tell him ‘he can’t do that and he has to stop’. You’re in a uniform, he might listen to you.”
She needed to control this kid and get the laundry. I still had time to kill while not on an actual assignment. She assured me it would be ok.
I hesitantly walked into the laundry room.
I put on my cool “big brother” persona since I am a big brother myself and can reach my little brothers when they are upset to calm them down. I hoped it would work. It’s how I connected with my kids at my old job. ..I miss my little homies sometimes.. This kid instantly stopped crying and talked to me. Stood off the floor. I brought him to the nanny and he had a fit again. So she told him to get the laundry with me….instant no crying and we went to the machine.
We talked. He told me alllllll about how to fold clothes and put them in the cart and how to throw out garbage and other random ramblings of a single-digit aged child. It was fun. I returned him to his nanny, having accomplished our mission of retrieving the laundry from the dryer machine, and i told him he could come down to me again if he was having another problem. This seemed to settle his spirit. Sometimes all a kid wants is to have someone just talk to them when they need it and he was happy to have made a friend in me.
Me. The nice guy who works in the building. With younger brothers. Named Cory.
His name was David. He’s a cool little kid.
I had to tap into my great affinity for working with kids and I realized how much joy it used to give me. I really loved making a difference and i got to do that again. If only for a brief moment, but it was a substantial moment. A kid needed me, well his nanny needed me too haha, and I was able to be there. I’m good with the little buggers. I did start my schooling to become an elementary school teacher.
That made me smile. I was happy to matter.
I was having a tough day too. Everything became so much easier after that. My new friend David gave me supahhhh energyyyyy to continue on.
Soooo… what made you smile? Or if you have something on the horizon, what is going to make you smile? Maybe you got a random compliment from a stranger. Maybe won a prize. Maybe you successfully returned someone else’s smile to them and that gave you yours too.
Til next time. Stay frosty.
Boi Growing Up 