This week Sofia faced two endings, school and her first week of summer camp. It has been a weird and challenging school year. She loves her teacher Mr. Ross although never had face-to-face class with him. I also like him a lot, probably the best one Sofia had in her 4 years in this school. So when last distance learning ended, Sofia was really sad. She said it feels like it has been only a month that she had Mr. Ross as teacher. What I like about him is how much effort he put to make the kids comfortable, outspoken, teaches them subjects with them not noticing they were doing “school”, and most of all, he radiates kindness and genuine care for his students. On the other hand, Lizzy finished school and was very happy not to have to do school anymore, not little bit of sadness. Although she said she’ll miss her two years teacher Mr. Steve and asked me to visit him when we can go back to school.
Another major ending is Sofia’s summer camp at Calleva. When I pick her up on Friday, she already looked down. I knew she was sad because she had so much fun every day there. After dinner when she was doing some homework, she broke into cry for like an hour (last time that this happened was when we had to said goodbye to grandma after a month of traveling in Europe together). She was so sad. She especially likes her counselor Bailey. Instinctively, I knew that I should not minimize her feelings. So instead of telling her to move on, I asked her what she likes about Bailey. She said: she’s just so kind, not afraid of anything, and so sweet. She’s so nice to everyone and knows so many fun games. I am glad to hear that she notices probably the most valuable characters: kindness, brave, and nice/sweet. I told her that we could come back next year if she’d like, and we can send a message to Bailey to let her know how much she appreciates her. Giving positive feedback is probably more important than negative feedback. Often time we don’t do that enough, we take for granted when someone is paid to be kind to us. But that is not the case, ALWAYS appreciate and practice kindness. Sofia drafted a short message and we sent it to Bailey. I am sure she appreciates it.
I am really glad that Sofia gets to experience and learn about kindness, the most valuable character to me. If we can all be kind to each other, the world will be a little bit better. 😆
My ankle continued to heel. Each day I can walk a bit longer without making swelling to come back. Yesterday I took a morning walk at my usual running route. I tried to jog but felt the pain right away so I stopped. I wasn’t upset that I couldn’t run, I was just grateful that I could walk, clear my mind in the morning, and have time for myself to reflect. “we can’t change the circumstances, but we can change our attitude“. 😀
Our New Journey 