Random Acts of Kindness Got Me Through The Day

I’m not sure if I should have gotten out of bed this morning…

It was a snowy, bizzardy day in Chicago. I decided that if I could make it out of my driveway, I’d go to work. Low and behold I made it.

I was ten minutes late for Cheerleading practice with, and bless their hearts, the girls said, “Miss B, we seen on the news how bad traffic is. We so glad you made it.” (note, the quotes, I know it's gramatically incorrect--Robb) Granted, not everyone on the squad made it this morning, but practice went well. I was thinking maybe this day won’t be so icky after all…

My first period class changed that.

I was getting paint out for the 5th graders. They’re studying Piet Mondrian and need the primary colors (red, blue and yellow). I was reaching for the gallon on top of my shelves when a couple of boys bumped me from behind. The jug slipped….and crack!! A gallon of yellow paint was splattered all over the back of my leg and on the floor.

Again, a few of my darlings snapped into action. One of them grabbed the jug and stood it up so that more paint wouldn’t run out. Another ran to get paper towels and several others offered to go to the engineer’s office for cleaning supplies. Two of the girls even tried to help get the paint off my back side. Granted I had a couple of goobers accidentally stepping in the paint and I made them take their shoes off to wash the soles…but with the massive mess, this class could have been a LOT worse. Some of the students acutally used paint off the floor for their projects...it was cute. And, yes, I had to go through the day with yellow paint splattered all down the back of my right leg.

Other than one of the 4th grades, the rest of the classes were pretty well behaved and attentive—even the 8th grade!! Maybe it was the weather.

Then on my way home, my very light Mustang was not doing well in the copious amounts of snow. A random adult helped push my car out of one drift in the parking lot. So NICE!! I thought I was home free until—

My car actually slid off the street. I was practically sideways in the street. I wasn’t going anywhere. I called Jack, who drives a tow truck to come and get me. While I was waiting I saw a group of my older students coming at my car with shovels…7 or 8 boys had run home to get shovels came back to dig me out and push me out to the main road!!! Totally renewed my faith in my kids!! I’m so grateful that I didn’t have to spend the night in my school. It totally gave me the warm fuzzy feeling! :) I’m definitely getting those kids a pizza or cupcakes or something!!

After taking nearly an hour to get home, I made it with out incident to my side street. I was less than 50 feet away when I got stuck again. Thankfully, Keri and Mr. R pushed me into my driveway. AMAZING!! I promised that by the time Mr. R walked back with his full gas can, I’d have a path shoveled for him…and I did! :)

I can’t believe the kindness of everyone I’ve encountered today. Sure, a bunch of crap happened, but I was blessed to encounter so much goodness through out the day. Thank you to all of you who offered a kind word, or got me out of the snow!! You rock!!