Imagination is Key

Imagination is key. Like most people I used to know this as a child, but somewhere in the process of growing up the idea seemed to slip from my mind. Today it is so easy to get stressed frazzled, and just plain short on patience. I often feel like I don't know where I'm going or on the off chance that I do, how on earth I'm going to get there. During our first training session, our site manager told us "check everything at the door" that the kids are the priority for those two hours in the classroom. I originally thought this was going to be difficult beyond belief, if not impossible. Upon actually entering the classroom for the first time I realized how wrong I had been that first day at training. I never imagined that a four- year-old's perspective on life could clear mine up so much. To the children we help, nothing is impossible, if they can dream it they can do it. No wall is too high and no dramatic play space is too limited to these kids. When something doesn't go their way, sure it's the end of the world for thirty seconds, but soon everything is right with the world again, as of nothing had happened in the seconds before. When I originally joined Jumpstart I had this ridiculous idea that I would be changing the lives of the children I worked with. I never would have imagined that the exact opposite would be true. Though the kids in our classroom never set out with the plan of changing the way their Jumpstart Friend looked at the world, they certainly accomplished it.

 Though I doubt that I'll ever be able to play house with as much zest as these kids can again, after a little over a month in the classroom I've come out with a new (or renewed) perspective on life. Sure, finals stink and the Red Line will surely be single tracking the next time we try to make it to session early, but you know, it's not really all that important. Trying to see life from the perspective of a four year old may seem crazy, but in reality we all thought that way once before, so why should it be so hard for us to feel this way again. Though I cannot say how much my Jumpstart children learned from “Oonga Boonga” I can say without a doubt that I have learned so much from them. Sometimes life gets crazy, and it seems like there’s nothing to do about it, but I can easily say that my kids taught me something that I will never forget. Go out of your way to ask that extra question, apologize when you hurt someone’s feelings, take an extra three seconds out of your day to give a friend a hug, and most important, never stop imagining. Always keep your dreams and greatest imaginations close, you can never know when inspiration will strike.

~Megan O'Toole
Corps Member
Team Learning 1