Good Exists
By Alexis Hire
Joy. Happiness. Cheer. In today’s society, where we
have very real knowledge of slavery, poverty, and violence it is hard to feel
these emotions sometimes. Our joy, our happiness, our cheer, it can be taken
away from you in a second after receiving bad news. We become easily
aggravated, upset, or mad at someone for the slightest thing. Sometimes, it
isn’t even anyone’s fault; one person just becomes the tip of the iceberg for
the day and you lash out at them because you are so sick and tired of
everything going wrong. Admit it; we’ve all had one of those days. Face it;
we’ve all had many of those days.
I have been working with children for a little over
three years now. Just about every day I am doing something that revolves around
children. Mondays, I teach 6th grade religious ed, Wednesdays, I’m
preparing fundraisers to raise money for children going through bone marrow
transplants, Thursdays I’m mentoring my 5th grade “little sister”
for Big Brother Big Sister, and Sundays I teach 4th grade religious
ed. Any other day is up for grabs for any or all of my 10 step-nieces and
nephews I gained from my mother’s marriage two years ago.
I won’t lie; it is frustrating working with all of
these children so often in my life. They don’t always listen and things almost
never go as I planned them to. I get angry with them and I have even gotten to
the point where I want to just walk out of the room and scream as loud as I
possibly can for as long as possible. They know it, I know it. Anyone who has
ever worked with or has children of their own probably knows that feeling too.
The thing is that I have no greater joy than when I am with these children. I
have never laughed as hard or smiled more brightly than when one of these
children says or does something that only children could get away with. You
know that saying, “Out of the mouths of babes”? Yeah, that’s pretty much my
life.
I am a sophomore in high school. I am in a class where
we talk about war and cultural groups that are being destroyed because of
humanity’s selfishness. We talk about mistakes that have been made and the
consequences other people have suffered. I have seen pictures of children who
are suffering, watched movies that show mothers screaming, begging not for
their own life to be saved, but for their children. I have studied the worst of
humanity. We have talked about it and tried to make sense of it. There have
been times when I’ve wanted to cry because of the hatred that I have seen/read
about. It is hard, knowing this material
and then having to carry on with my life as a white, middle class American
girl. I know that there are people suffering, but I know that at least for now,
there’s nothing I can do. And it sucks.
Maybe that’s why I love working with kids so much. My
life hasn’t been nearly as bad as some other people I know, or as many other
people in the world, but it hasn’t been easy either. It sure isn’t the life I
would have chosen for myself, that’s for sure.
When I see people being kind to one another, choosing the hard path to
just be nice when it’s so easy to be aggravated and nasty to each other, that’s
where I get my inspiration to teach, to mentor. That’s where I find my strength
to keep going in this world. Because that’s the kind of person I want to be. I
want my students and my “little sister”, and my step nieces and nephews to know
that there are still good people in this world. I want to set the example for
them that they do not have to only see bad. That there is good, too. Because
there is.
I find the good in the children I spend my time with. Sometimes with
people I work with or my peers, but mostly with the children I love so much. In
my life, one true thing that I have learned is to never give up hope. I know
that I can’t travel around the world to help people. I know that I can’t travel
around the country to help people. But I can do what I can. I can do what I’m
good at. I can be an example of the good that is still in this world and show
people that kindness and patience do exist. That sixteen year olds that want to
spend their time with children exist. That good exists.
