Ah, adolescence.

I don't often think about my "former life" which consisted of daily interaction with high school students. But, today, I was reminded how I miss them...or maybe I just miss how they make me feel...

I had a girl come to work with me today who decided to work with us for her senior project. She was actually pretty great, and I was impressed with her volunteer work at home and her desire to help us, too. But what I loved most about her was that she was so excited to meet me! We had only exchanged a few e-mails, but I had shared some info with her to help as she collects items for our programs. But, she just was genuinely excited to meet this person on the other end and was so interested in our work. She kept telling me how she hopes to be like me and how I have a dream job. Now, I'm pretty sure I've never heard that from any of my donors/visitors so I laughed it off. But I realized that when I was her age, I probably would have thought this job was pretty cool, too. And I appreciate her reminder that helping people (directly or indirectly) and meeting people who want to help us do that is pretty special and I'm blessed to get to a part of it during this season of my life.

Oh, and.....during my sharing with this student and her mother over lunch, they couldn't believe I was old enough to have the experiences I've had. Her mom asked, "So, how old are you?" Upon my reply, the girl's eyes got super big and her mouth gaped open because she couldn't believe I could possibly be THAT old. Ha, well, thank you. I remember when I used to think this was old, too. :)