Sunday Night With John: How It All Started

It was just a summer job to pay the rent. I was hired to work for a local non-profit in their summer program taking care of local kids. I was 18 and didn’t really know what I was doing, but, there were weekly trips to the swimming pool, a movie theater day, and a foosball table. I figured there were worse ways to spend my summer than hanging with some kids, fellow workers around my age, and soaking up the sun poolside. The only hiccup was the ball-of-energy kid, who challenged authority and got bored within five seconds. My boss told me this kid had been kicked out of a number of other daycare programs and they were worried he might not make it through the summer with us.

Before the first day, I thought to myself, no way one kid can cause that much havoc. Well, after my first whirlwind day of helping this kid maintain an energy level of 11 on a scale that stops at 5, I realized what I had signed up for. He tested. He climbed walls. He threw toys at me. Some days, I couldn’t help but laugh. We kept at our dance for the first month of the program. Every day, when his mom came to pick him up, she would ask how he had done. Most days, I would tell her he did great.  If we had a really poor day, I would say we did just fine. I remember the way he looked at me each time I gave his mom the update. He would smile his mischievous smile and nod at me to let me know that he knew I was lying about his day.

We made it through the first month. We made it through the second month. And, with the days of the program winding down, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. This kid was going to go the whole summer without getting kicked out! A sense of accomplishment grew inside me. With the help of my wonderful co-workers, I had managed a kid that a number of care providers had given up on. He and I formed a bond as we finished out the last couple of weeks. On the last day, his mom asked if I would return next summer. I smiled and said, more than likely, yes. The kid smiled his mischievous smile back at me, but this time it was a nod to the fact he was happy to hear I would be back.

It was that summer that my desire to help the ones that everyone else had given up on was born. Because all those kids that people give up on have a wonderful, caring, and fun side. It’s just the years of rejection from adults that instill an inability to keep it together. I was still only 18 and was not sure what I wanted to do with my life yet. But, that summer and that kid opened my eyes to a world I knew I wanted to be a part of. A world where I, and my co-workers, do not change the kids who sometimes give us headaches. We show them that they are already great and just haven’t been given the chance to shine yet.

So that kid, who has to be in his mid-20s by now, gave me a lot more than I gave him. That’s the way it usually works out in the helping field. He provided me the opportunity to find my life’s calling. He allowed me to learn where I would shine best.