A Soft Pants Kid

The first true soft pants kid I ever encountered was my first year teaching.  The year was 2006.  Tyler (and I feel good about using his name because, if he knew I was writing about him it would be to his absolute delight) spent the majority of his second grade year trying to convince his classmates that soft pants were the way to go.  In that day and age, the majority of kids were wearing jeans.  Tyler knew there were better things in this world.  No one was really swayed, but it wasn't for lack of effort on his part.  His favorites were yellow, which he usually paired with a tie-dyed t-shirt, and he wore them often.  

He was ahead of his time.

As a person who grew up wearing jeans, I thought that was the way.  I intended to raise my kids the same.  The first one went along with me.

The second?  Not so much.

 As we argued over pants (again), I realized, this is it. I'm waving the white flag. I'm raising a soft pants kid.  And I immediately thought of Tyler.

He'd be so proud.

I ran into Tyler shortly after he graduated a few years ago.  Same big grin, same big personality. He bounded up to me and said, "Ms. Cloninger!  I bet you don't remember me!"  Ohh, but I do.  

Your teachers remember you, friends, and in their mind's eye you will always be the age you were when they taught you.  Yellow sweatpants and all.  And, crazily enough, they'll remember you on a random Friday morning when they're arguing with their own child about pants and telling them they're going to be thirty years old one day and not able to button a button.  And then the teacher is going to think about you, and think, Man, I hope they learned how to button buttons and then wonder for a moment about where you are and what you're doing and hope that you remember them fondly.  They're going to hope the one hundred eighty days they spent with you meant something, and they're going to hope they were enough--kind enough, patient enough, good enough.

Because as much as we talk about relationships and the lasting impacts we have as educators, our students touch our lives just as much.

Find your joy, y'all.