Now that this week is over, I finally realized that I have one more week of my summer job before I say hello to my new textbooks and essays. However, I feel that even though I’ve been making non-sensical sounds and faces the entire summer, I’ve learnt quite a bit while playing with small children.

If you haven’t figured out already, I’ve been working with kids all summer at a child-parent centre, which is not a daycare but a place where parents bring their kids (ages 0 to 6) so that they can play with other toys and children while the parents can relax and mingle as they keep an eye out for the kids. As I went through 7 weeks of kids drooling on me and tackling me, I’ve learnt a few lessons. Although taught by children, they don’t necessarily have anything to do with them.

1. Time and patience builds friendships.

I admit that most of the best friends I’ve had in my life I’ve met by chance. I simply meet someone in some sort of situation and, “Poof!” we magically get along really well and become (and stay) friends. I guess that in this way, it was long overdue that I finally learned that some relationships take a lot of time and patience to build. I’m very glad to have learned this or I may have never earned the friendship of the various children and parents who frequent the child-parent centre.

2. Being attentive to someone goes a long way.

Today, one of the little girls who goes to the child-parent centre was looking shyly towards one of my co-workers, who was sitting a couch. My co-worker, who noticed, asked if she wanted to take a seat next to her. The little girl just sat there smiling happily like it was the best thing in the world to be invited to sit down.

In the end, this was a lesson to me on how being attentive to someone makes such a difference. Although most of us aren’t shy little girls, the fact is, it’s nice to know that someone else is looking out for you. Doesn’t this put a whole new meaning to the question of, “How are you?”

3. People changing constantly.

The child-parent centre closed for about a month for summer cleaning and vacation. After that month, so many of the kids came back taller, the one-year-olds who didn’t walk walked and those who were shy or silent suddenly talked non-stop. People usually denote the age of a baby or toddler in months because in reality, an eleven-month-old is very different from a twelve-month-old. In a course of a month, bodies change, emotions change and personalities can change.

Although it’s more noticeable in growing children, it’s the exactly the same for adults. You might not think that the change was profound or significant, but you aren’t the same person you were last year, month, week or even yesterday. In that sense, maybe your best friends or significant other aren’t simply people who share the same interests but people who can accept the changes you experience as time goes by.

4. Until they’re older, babies and toddlers NEVER get tired of peek-a-boo.

I’m not joking.

5. The more you spend time with children, the more unprepared you feel for having them.

In the end, I do wonder if anyone is ever completely emotionally, physically and mentally ready to have children. In the back of my mind, I have the nagging suspicion that wanting to have kids is like an implacable desire to buy something that you really, really want (like the pair of shoes I got this week…) and that desire simply overrides every logical thought in your head. Anyone care to support or debunk my theory?

So, did you learn anything during your summer job?

Around one year ago, I started my PEY (Professional Experience Year) job at a mid-sized software company in downtown Toronto. It was the first time got a taste of life in a typical office job, surrounded by grey cubicle walls for hours a day. Below is my analysis of a general work experience versus school experience.

School: There is a foreseeable end (graduation).
Work: No foreseeable end, until retirement.

School: Being around people who are your age who have a similar lifestyle as you.
Work: Seeing the same people everyday, some of whom are likely to be significantly older than you. Also, if you don’t happen to get along with one of them, you are basically screwed.

School: Sitting through boring lectures, although you can skip them sometimes (or sleep through).
Work: Sitting through boring meetings that you can’t get out of and have to pay attention in.

School: Being thousands of dollars in debt.
Work: Having a steady income.

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