Saying Goodbye to a family

In six days the Arizona State University Child Development Center will not just be ending for the school year but permanently. I can't tell you what that means not just for me but for all the amazing women who had the privilege of teaching there. I just talked to Kathy, the director. I feel in my heart that the ending of this wonderful preschool is like watching a loved one passing on.

I walked the passage from being a child to being an adult in those walls. Along with those children, I learned valuable life lessons that carried me forward. I never found a place quite like the CDC, full of life and diversity. I had the privilege of seeing socially anxious children, children bursting with energy, and several children with disabilities bloom like wild flowers right before my eyes. They taught me as much as I taught them. There were fellow teachers who became close friends that God used to shape my very character. If influence left a finger print, theirs would be some of the deepest. I learned hard work, integrity, and the pursuit of growing and bettering myself. I learned how to care for others above myself and realized the importance of friends.

There were children that I worked with that I will never forget, their smiles, laughter, and vivacity will ever be before my eyes spurring me forward offering me hope that for all they have before them in their little lives, so am I facing forward no matter where I am on my journey eagerly learning and seeking wisdom and knowledge. There are two life lessons in particular they taught me.

#1 The blocks. There were two shelves of blocks in ever shape. During free time, each block made it onto the carpet being made and remade into every imaginable structure. When it came to clean up, their little eyes got huge and they became quite overwhelmed. It was so precious to me to assign a specific block type to each child and watch them work as a team. I am reminded constantly of this as life overwhelms me with all its requirements and demands on my time, my thinking and my heart. Even my husband at times is known to tell me, "Katie, triangle blocks first." The wisdom of prioritizing all of life's demands came at the sticky hands of preschoolers.

#2 Nothing was more fun then getting out the hose and etching out rivers in the sand. Patti, a lead teacher, always had them make their river beds and then she turned the hose on. Occasionally complaints would arise for the water first. Through watching these precious ones with sand all over, including in their hair, I realized an important lesson. If the water came first, they would have been unprepared and water would have just gone every where, but making the path first directed the water where they wanted it to go. I know that when opportunity and blessings flow into my life, I am better able to receive them when I am prepared. College was my canal, the help I was able to give others because of it was the rain. Otherwise my help would have come but it would have never been as efficient. I learned preparing my life for what is to come is a lot better than just letting life land where it may.

So the ASU West CDC, I equate as a whole a priceless mentor, will end, but it will never die completely. It lives on because we live on.