Last spring, I decided to leave my part-time job as a cashier and look for something a little more fulfilling.

Well... as fulfilling as you can get when you're a senior in high school with no experience other than in retail, procrastination, and some babysitting. I ended my job search mid-February and started working at where I am now, a local daycare about 3 miles from my house and in the center of my up-and-coming little town.

Where I am now, I’m making less money per hour and this was a concern for me all up until I finished out my first shift. I didn’t want to go home. I had so much anxiety and nervousness wrapped up in my head about how these kids would react to me being new, and all of that went away as soon as I saw them. I’d had experience with babysitting in the past, but none where I had a one-on-one routine with them every day. All I’ve ever known is how the underclassmen at my high school had acted and I wasn’t a fan of any of it, but I was wrong to think these younger children would behave the same.

You can see the joy and innocence in these kids. How they have an eagerness to take on life and though they may be smaller people, their hearts are bulging. The feeling you get of being needed by them and the joy they get from having someone to go to with all their earth-shattering problems that all seven year olds have, is indescribable. You have a purpose.

Until the end of the summer, which is quickly and sadly approaching, I will have my same group of 20-or-so first and second graders that I started with. I go home every day thinking about these kids. I go on vacation and I catch myself missing them all the time. I have no idea what I’m possibly going to do when I have to leave them in three short weeks.

The best part of this job is that I went to this same facility 10 years ago. The fact I can say I did something "10 years ago" is mind boggling to me. Times have changed more than can be described, and here I am, back in the prime of my years of innocence. Working with kids shows how pure and fun the world could be if you saw it through a child’s eyes. Their only worry is if they’re getting to go to the pool that weekend or if they get the newest toy that they just “have to have because they can’t be the only one who doesn’t.” They don’t worry about turning papers on time, or financial aid applications. They have no idea what college even is yet, nor can they grasp the thought that they will be in my shoes in just a few years.

The craziest thing, is that it’s so hard for me to grasp the opposite. I was in their shoes. I was wondering what was around the next corner and where my life was going to go. I played around and acted like life would never speed up, until it took off, full speed ahead. Your innocence goes away, your time starts ticking by faster, everything has a deadline, everyone must be pleased, and you should have everything figured out.

I never thought I would want to stay a kid forever, until I only had less than a month to be one.