Never Give Up

This school year found me working.  It was kind of a crazy road to get there, but I am enjoying it.  I work in a Special Ed class with 5th and 6th graders.  There are 9 kids and 4 adults.

These kids are so fun (and so hard all in the same breathe).  But they never give up.

Two of the boys in there are determined to make friends with another boy.  Let's make up names for them all.  "David" is the short 6th grade boy.  "Aaron" is the tall 6th grade boy.  And "Henry" is a 5th grade boy who doesn't interact with the other kids.

David and Aaron both try to make Henry their friend.  They will come by and hold his hand.  Henry doesn't even notice.  Aaron brought Henry a bag of cookies with Henry's name written on it (mom must have done that).  Henry didn't want any of the cookie.  David tries to talk with Henry (David is only partially verbal) and Henry doesn't look up.  David will shake Henry's shoulders in a friendly way trying to get Henry to look at him.  And Henry doesn't.

Henry can be disruptive.  He can scream with high pitched screams.  He takes the full time attention of one of the adults (me) in the class.  He gets food when the other kids don't. 

David and Aaron could look at him with a jealous eye.  They could easily resent him for not being friendly.  But they don't.  Each day they try again to get Henry's love.

They NEVER give up.

Sometimes, as "functioning" adults, we give up too easy.  We stop trying to be nice to someone (I'm guilty there).  We stop trying to figure out a difficult puzzle.  And we stop seeing the beauty in everything around us.

I challenge you to find something you've given up on and try again.  Is it running?  Writing?  What? 

For me its writing.  I must keep plugging away at it.