The Act of Giving

    
     Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This year I will be spending the holidays alone for the first time. I will be trading family dinner for a classroom and a Christmas tree for a lesson plan. Although I will miss my friends and family back home, I am truly looking forward to celebrating in my own way. This year I am elated to rejoice by giving my love and time to the students at my school. These students have already begun teaching me so much about what it means to be a simple-kind-of-happy. The forever smiling faces and calls of "teeaachha Teeefahhnny" lift my spirits daily and remind me why I have taken on the daunting task of teaching Angrid (English).
     Each day I am astonished at how much these students love and respect their teachers as well as each other. I am told on a daily basis "I love you" and I never hesitate to say it back. Children respect my presence but are also thrilled when I arrive to teach.
I am constantly being given chocolate, stickers, erasers, and candy from my students, and they are overjoyed when I accept. For them, it is not about what they are giving or about how much.It is about the simple act of giving. They do not need a holiday to practice the act of giving nor do they give with any expectations. Today I witnessed a child take all of her stickers off of her own ID card to give to me. Yesterday a young boy gave away every single cookie in his lunch box to his friends without keeping a single one for himself. He wasn't sad about it or even disappointed. When I asked him "what about you" he only smiled and shrugged his little shoulders. 
     This is how life should be. Sharing for the sheer generosity of sharing. No barriers or selfishness, no underlying reason about what you can receive in return. Just giving to give.   
     Small acts of kindness like these warm my heart and push me to encourage and support these students as much as I possibly can. This Thanksgiving I am thankful for these kids and for how awakening they have been. This holiday season I aspire to enlighten and teach these children as much as they have already enlightened and taught me.