And then I remembered...

Some days should just be over before they start. You know there is no hope for a good day virtually from the moment you open your eyes. Today was one of those days. When things don't work. Things go sour. I could not come up with a single good thing to say, not about myself or anyone or anything around me. But then something great happened. I have been tutoring a young man for nearly three years. This will be his last year with me, before he begins junior high school. He is not the only kid I have tutored or taught since we made aliyah, but he seemed to be the most sincerely present only because he had to be, because his parents forced him. That is not to say we don't have a good rapport, but he does not seem to be all that interested in learning all that often. But yesterday and today, we had really good sessions. He got what I was saying, he listened and absorbed, and lo and behold, he realized what we were doing was actually going to help him. Why today? I don't know. Maybe it was the different angle I approached on getting him the information. Maybe it was the different way of preparing that I tried. Maybe it was the weather (it's a heat wave in February, temps around 84 degrees Fahrenheit - take that galut snowbunnies!) It was one of those "a-ha" moments for him, and it became an "a-ha" for me that made me remember what I loved about teaching. Maybe it won't last beyond today, maybe it was a blip that won't repeat, but for a moment, I realized that I have value in the life of a child. Often there is more bad than good, more cost than reward in teaching, but today was a good day. At least for the teacher I once was. She doesn't show her face around here all that often, so it was a nice change. And it was a little redemption for an otherwise unredeemable day.

Wishing all of us a better day tomorrow,
Dvora