YMCA

2 Pages 468 Words

All my life I’ve been career-oriented. When other girls were playing with dolls and planning weddings, I was reorganizing office supplies and imagining my corporation taking over the industry. Needless to say I’ve been excited about joining the American workforce since I could read and when I finally got the opportunity to do so I was hit with the shock of a life-time. I envisioned my first job to be one behind a cash resister or a computer but when times got hard I took the first job available to me, and it made all the difference.
Working with kids was something that I never considered. I didn’t mind kids but I never pictured myself as the kind of person that had the patients and understanding to deal with them on a regular basis. I took a job as an after-school care counselor for the YMCA despite my uncertainty because I needed it. After working with my kids for 4 months, I thank my director for seeing something in me that I didn’t know I had. I never would have imagined that I would learn more about myself and about responsibility on a playground rather than an office.
After a week at the YMCA I was in love with every single one of my kids and each time they wrap their dirty hands around my legs and look up at me I fall in love all over again. I understand now the fear my parents felt when I was home late, I understand the inability to breath when you see your child fall, and I understand the heart break felt when your child cries because they don’t have any friends. The kids taught me patience, compassion, and strength. There is nothing more nerve-wracking than talking to a parent about their child misbehaving. Usually talking to parents is a positive encounter because they like to hear about their child’s accomplishments but when the conversation is the opposite parents are quick to question the actions of the counselors or the other child involved the only way to fix the trouble issue is if you stick to your decisi...