grateful.

It's nearing the midnight hour and as I've volunteered to go to work tomorrow at eight after two eight hour days of cleaning and prep, of course I am compelled to sit and blog at this very moment. I can only imagine how good I will feel about this choice in seven hours.

It's relatively easy for me to become obsessed with things, I'll admit. But I think it may be safe to say I've never been obsessed with anything as much as I am with my job. I can't help it. To start, I have the best coworkers in the universe. No competition. These women are beyond inspiring. I can't even really comprehend that I get to share space with them everyday. And then on top of that, I get to spend my days with some of the most smart, adorable, insightful, challenging, amazing little people. It seems ridiculous to me to think back seven months ago and think about how all of this fortuitously fell into my lap. To date, I don't think any sequence of events has had such an impact on my life.

I think the most overwhelming, and simultaneously comforting, thing has been how through this job I am invited to be part of these family's lives. I've always felt the most at ease in familial situations. Undoubtedly stemming from my family's geographic and sometimes mind boggling (at times infuriating) closeness, I loving witnessing families in action. I experienced it watching Connor. I experience it weekly with dinners at the wankets. And now to have it as an extension of my job, it's really nice. I just babysat for one of the families tonight and it just felt oddly natural to just hang out for forty minutes after the parent's came home, just chatting, catching up.

And this brought to my mind a recent incident at work. A coworker who started in May or so, just quit last week. And when discussing it with another teacher she stated, "Well you guys are like family here, and for me it's just a job." As this story spread around, it was like this woman was cutting out our hearts. Just. A. Job. Without going into a lengthy diatribe, working with children is never just a job. And, if it were up to me, anyone who honestly thinks that and still chooses to work with children deserves a swift kick to the behind. Daily.

Today, after cleaning and prep and job making oh my, my bosses called us all into their office individually to bestow their appreciation on us. And on my bosses commented to me that she can't believe that I have only been here since January because I already feel like family. And for me, who started out so intimidated by the tight knit nature of this small school community, those words were so kind and necessary. And just confirmed everything I am feeling about this place.

And it's days like this that I realize, fate karma luck blessings good fortune serendipity, whatever brought me to where I am today, I'm just grateful. I know how good I have it and I couldn't be happier.