Your Smiling Face

Today, when I was walking downstairs at school, I ran into one of the fourth grade classes on their way up the stairs. Their classroom is right across from my library and so I talk to their teacher quite frequently. She's been very supportive to me, always telling me how much she appreciates me and what I am doing. It's been really helpful to me in my overwhelming first days in my new career. Which I love, by the way.

And apparently it shows.

Today when I ran into that class at the stairwell, I stopped and waited for them to pass, and Mrs. J said "Oh, it's always so nice to see your smiling face." Then she said it again. I just smiled even more.

I thought about it, and I realized that just a little while before that, my new "friend" (if you can call him that) said to me "You're always smiling, that's why I like you."

I have to say, that no one has ever said these things about me. Dramatic, complainer, whiner, crabby, tired, stressed...(funny, talented, and smart too :) are all words I am used to hearing...but internally it has always pained me to hear them. I wanted so much not to be those things, but I couldn't seem to get away from them.

J said to me last week, "You really love your job, don't you?" And I just said "Yes, yes, I do" with no hesitation, no pause to fake my answer, just yes, I do. He smiled so sweetly then, and said, "You're blessed." And I agreed, "I am."

Today when that teacher said that to me, after J had said it earlier, made me very happy. This is the person I know I am, I have always been, and finally, now, people can see me.