Working with youth is a luxury and an incredibly rewarding experience. You get to enjoy fresh perspectives and raw, uninhibited emotion. Here are just a few ways that working with children can change your life for the better.
Smiles are way more common. Children have a very specific brand of humor, which typically consists of testing the waters to see what others think is funny and what falls flat. It's impossible to not smile when a kid feels confident enough to indulge in a joke with you. Having an unblemished world view is the privilege of childhood. Children are shameless about their happiness, and their laughter becomes contagious.
Emotions become more raw. Especially working with children as a theatre camp counselor, I find that these kids are completely unapologetic in expressing emotion. When they get excited, they sing and dance and completely disregard anybody who may be judging them, while a minor fall evokes crocodile tears and a trip to the nurse. All experiences are new, exciting, and a little frightening for these children, and they are not afraid to let you know how they feel, which is a pleasure to experience firsthand.
You are a role model. Your kids look up to you more than you realize -- they are always listening. Trust me, you may think that one of them isn't absorbing your words, but he or she undoubtedly is. While they don't necessarily idolize you, they definitely watch your actions and reactions as guidelines for their own behavior. You are shaping worlds and creating new environments. Working with children accentuates how you can't get careless, because you are helping to create the future; the kids you work with keep you on your toes. As Jim Henson said, "Kids don't remember what you try to teach them, they remember what you are."
Problem solving becomes second-nature. Try having a child come up to you and say that the sole completely broke off of the bottom of his or her shoe. Meanwhile, you look at the clock and see that there are still hours upon hours left in the day that an intact shoe is necessary. What would you do in that situation to help the child? While this may not be applicable to your every day, the concept of problem solving totally is. The nuances of life require quick thinking and reflexes. Through working with children, you learn how to fix situations with record-breaking times.
The future is literally before your eyes. It is the greatest privilege to sit next to a child and listen to his or her dreams and ambitions. Children are the most driven individuals on this planet, and to realize that you may be working with a future President of the United States, a future Broadway star, or a future New York Times best-selling author makes everything worth it. To work with children means to invest in their futures, consequently creating a brighter, bigger, and more beautiful world for everyone.
Ultimately, in a society where success is mistaken for true happiness, emotional vacancy is rampant, and laughter is lacking, working with children brings positivity, optimism, and endless hope for the future to your world.