Working in a corporate environment with professional expectations and tasks is beneficial, especially as a 20-something college student whose resume is expected to be stacked with such skills. However, no amount of training in Microsoft Excel or ability to calculate a company's operating net income benefits the kinds of life lessons I’m also hoping to obtain as a 20-something college student.

Many of my friends will spend their summers working as interns in major headquarters, finally applying the textbook lessons taught in their economy and finance courses to real-world scenarios. While yes, it would be greatly beneficial to spend my Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in an office engaging with “the real world” as so many adults like to vaguely label it, I will be passing my days with a different kind of company.

People love to discuss childhood and nostalgia. No one will pass an opportunity to bask in stories about their T-ball championship or how easy life was when math had only numbers, no letters. However, as we get older, we’re as equally quick to bask in nostalgic glory as we are to dismiss the important lessons that coincide with those memories. Being surrounded by children as a babysitter is an opportunity that gives us the chance to relive those similar experiences that so often arise in youth and appreciate them for the vast significance they can have.

Everyday has the potential to be a good one.

When children wake up in the morning, they look at the day that lies before them with eyes wide open, fully prepared to grasp whatever may be thrown their way. Regardless of what events are coming, whether they be positive or negative, exciting or boring, children accept the nature of the day with full confidence that whatever happens while the sun shines above them can bring good.

Take pleasure in the smallest victories.

The simple, unsaid small victories that bring a genuine smile to children’s faces often don’t gain a second thought to the common adult. Eating a really great piece of cake or laughing really hard at a joke are, though minuscule in comparison to the greater day, massive in importance to a successful day. To the child, every small victory gathers to a big victory, which often results in the execution of the previously listed lesson, making every day a good one.

Everything is going to be OK.

When the small victories go away and a bigger defeat makes an appearance, kids often need to be reminded that everything really is going to be OK. Though quick to distribute such cliché advice, the dispenser of such wisdom often forgets him or herself that the truth of this statement doesn't cease to exist to his or her own difficulties. While a child’s defeat might only concern broken crayons and sidewalk scrapes as opposed to impending bills and unknown majors, a defeat is a defeat. But, regardless of the nature of a loss, no matter the age, things won’t stay down forever.

The best kinds of people never really grow up.

As an adult, nothing is worse than dealing with a peer that is childish at all the wrong times. However, on the flipside, nothing is better than being in good company. It reminds you of your best childhood pal and the many adventures you two had together. The best people, though aware that being a child shouldn’t be the default behavior, never forget that everyone’s inner child should never wander too far away.

Love everything unconditionally and unapologetically.

Strangers to heartbreak and disappointment, yet to experience what it’s like to say goodbye to people they never thought would leave their sides. Children’s primary lack that separates them from adults is the fact that they are still not jaded. Toughened by the harsh realities many years of life can bring, adults easily forget the default tendencies we once had to love everything and everyone for the nature of whatever it brings. A child loves a chocolate chip cookie for every single chocolate chip it holds, no more and no less. Children love playing in the pool for every splash, dive, and brisk rush of chill it provides in the stiff August heat. They love their parents for the good and bad things that parents are for and love their pets regardless of all the dirt their dogs may drag into the house. As so many adults do, kids don’t look at what consequences could very well happen based on their own experience, but instead fully love every experience, person and thing for all that it can be. Although I believe they know fully well what consequences may coincide with certain loves, they never allow it to interfere. And that is the difference.

Thank you to every child I’ve had the pleasure of babysitting and all the children I will babysit. Each day with you has taught me or reminded me, of things that should extend beyond my juvenile years. It’s easy to learn complex life lessons from wise adults who have been around for more time than I have. However, it takes a certain kind of company to remind me of all the things I might have overlooked during my first few years around.