Better Day

The circumstances are identical to those last week - in fact, worse, because our electricity is out again at home - but I'm in a much better frame of mind today. I'm remembering why I love "my" kids so much, and how lovable they really are.

Today there is a girls' soccer game and several of my seventh graders are involved. They got to wear their team shirts to school, and they all sat together and congratulated themselves. I called them our soccer champions and they just beamed. Several of the boys told them they aren't going to win, and I said that whether they do or not, they are still our soccer champions. It's fun to see them that enthusiastic about something.

It's what I love most about middle schoolers - those flashes you still see in them of childish excitement and joy - childish in the best sense of that word. Those moments when they forget how cool they are supposed to be. And then in the same day, in the same kid, you see such amazing maturity, again in flashes. They really are in the crossroads between little kids and grown up, responsible people. Well, people who may yet become responsible some day.

What helps me most to understand what they're dealing with, and feel affection for them instead of irritation, is remembering what it was like to be 13. Then I don't take their behavior so personally.