I was browsing Facebook the other day when I came across a new album of pictures posted by URJ Camp Newman where I went to camp for three summers as a kid. Newman is probably the most common Jewish camp for youth from my temple to attend, so it's not unusual for me to see people I know in the camp's brochures and online albums. I was looking at session photos when I noticed a familiar face. However, I was surprised to see this child, whom I had worked with as a third grader when I aided in religious school during high school, in a picture for a session I knew was for middle schoolers. How could it be? The last time I saw this kid he was 9 years old!
I thought back and noted that he was in my class when I was a junior in high school. I am now entering my junior year of college. I realized that this boy is going to be in seventh grade this fall. Seventh grade! When he was in the class I helped teach, he was just learning the Hebrew letters and vowels. Now, sometime during seventh grade, he will stand in front of the entire congregation and celebrate becoming a Bar Mitzvah. Although he has awhile to go before having the rights and responsibilities of an adult in the legal sense, when he turns 13 he will be viewed as an adult in the eyes of the Jewish community. And this is my third grader we're talking about!
When I was younger (and even now, sometimes), people would come up to me and tell me I was so big and so tall and so grown up since the last time they saw me. Half the time I would have no idea who the person talking to me even was because I had been so young the last time we met. The funny thing is, I find myself doing the exact same thing to kids now. It was about eight years ago that I worked in my first class as a religious school aide. It was a kindergarten class, and now the kids are 13 and entering eighth grade! It never occurred to me that this would eventually happen to me, but I guess this is what you get when you work with kids for this many years!
No comments:
Post a Comment