When I was younger I never imagined I’d be working with youth on a fairly regular basis. I grew up wanting to be a college professor, but I knew that would be different than working with teenagers or pre-teens. I vowed that if I had to I might teach high-school students, but there was no way I was going to work with Jr. High students. Even when I was in high school I recognized the differences between those of us who were of my generation or older and those who were to be emerging generations after myself. The attitudes, belief systems, social structures and values of these younger generations were something I didn’t understand and something I didn’t want to understand. They were different than me and I didn’t want to have anything to do with them.
Now I’m an active youth worker. I work with a pretty large group (and then smaller groups) of Middle Schoolers on a weekly basis.
And there are very few things that hold a higher priority in my life.
I’ve never been one to be good with money. I don’t understand investments all that much, I rarely feel I have enough “extra” to truly save and I live pay-check-to-pay-check.
But I do understand the investment I have in these students and it is this investment that I feel gives my life value and purpose.
