my after school visitors

Every day at 3:00, I have some visitors.

The same 3 boys, for the past 2 years.
Sometimes only 1 or 2 come. Some days, they skip.
But the majority of the time, they find their way to my door.
And I love it.

They tell me about hard classes. They tell me about their friends.

They tell about their baseball and soccer teams.

They tell me stupid jokes.

I wonder if they know just how much they mean to me.

Some people think I am insane to do what I do.

I teach middle school resource, and for some reason, only have 2 female students.

I have 17 male students.

I adore all my students, but I feel as if I have a special talent for teaching and dealing with these young boys.

When I get a new student and the teachers tell me something like, "Nothing can be done. He's awful!" I get excited. Because I think something can be done. Something can always be done. I think 15-year-old boys are so misunderstood. After spending 3 years with them, I have realized all they really want is someone to take them seriously. Respect follows quickly when you give it to them first.

They also don't mind if you tell stupid jokes, or happen to think that farts are funny.

When I started my degree, I never thought I'd be here.

I wanted to do severe special ed, not mild/moderate.

I wanted to teach elementary school only, not secondary.

So here I am, a mild/moderate middle school teacher.

It's the last place I'd thought I'd be, and I could not be happier.

It's so funny to me how we think we know what we need, when we really have no idea.

I asked them today why they come to my door after school.

They laughed, and one said it's because they like it in my room. It's a "happy room."

That's all I can really ask for as a teacher; that my kids feel happy in my room.

I don't like thinking about the day when after two years, the visits will stop.

They will move onto 10th grade and onto a new school.

I already get all mushy and sad at just the thought.

But right now, I am so grateful. 

Grateful for my visitors.

Grateful for all my students.

Grateful for the talent that I have to reach them and teach them.

Grateful for their love.

Grateful to have the job I do.

Grateful that Heavenly Father knew these boys needed me, and that I needed them.

One day I'll tell my own sons all about how I raised 17 teenage boys at once, 

and how they taught me to love like a mom well before I ever was one.