Every day, every minute of every hour of every day, children are being born. A single child is a weapon; many children is an army. But what is a weapon if you don’t know how to work it? What is an army if you don’t train them correctly? Children are the most important aspect of this country; you can tell I really feel for this topic because of the many reports I’ve written on children. If you do not teach a child the proper etiquette, the proper way to go about life, if you do not give them the tools and means and education needed to survive, they must turn to other means. They must turn to violence or crime because they don’t know any better. And why don’t they know any better? Because schools are not funded enough. There is not enough money or people who care to teach these kids the right from the wrong. But that’s not what this article is about.

This article is about a little boy who has changed my life forever. He is five years old in kindergarten and if you ask him, he will tell you I am his best friend. For a while, I felt happy and appreciated by that. Every day, he walks into the classroom and comes right over to me with open arms. “Ms. Allison!!!!!”, the words ring and repeat in my ear when I’m not with him. Every day after school, he gets off the bus and comes running at me full force, again arms open, ready for his daily hug. Every day, he tells me how his school day went and he tells me one interesting thing he has learned. This child looks up to me and appreciates me every day.

Unfortunately, I have been very sick. I ended up missing a couple days of work and these days I missed I realized something. The first thing was how much he does actually need and appreciate me because he has told other teachers he will not return until I do. The second is how much I’ve actually learned from him. This child loves and appreciates me and I do not know what ten years down the road will hold, but I know somewhere, somehow, life will be better because I was important to him.

I have conflicted feelings of calling a five-year-old my best friend, but I do think he is. I heard a story once of a teacher who asked her students to write down what they wanted to be when they were older. She collected all the answers, ranging from astronauts to doctors to “people who build houses”. She was reading through and got to one response to which one word was written. Happy. She conferenced with the student and looked at him and said “John I don’t think you understand the assignment” to which John Lennon looked at the teacher and replied “I don’t think you understand life”. This is a goal of mine. Every day, I asked my kids something that has gone wrong and then after they tell me I ask “well are you happy” and I feel butterflies in my stomach when they reply yes. I was sad one day (2016 was not a good year to me) and my best friend asked me what was wrong. He looked at me as I cried and told him and before I knew it, this small child was embracing me, rubbing my back and saying “Ms. Allison I just want you to be happy just like you want for us”. That was the day I decided a five-year-old is my best friend.

I believe the future is wide and broad for this child. I asked him what he wants to be when he is older. He looked me dead in the eye and said “I don’t know what I want to be but I can tell you what I don’t want to be”. I looked at him blankly as he continued, “I don’t want to be like my dad who was in jail for 18 months, my dad is not a bad guy and I still love him, but I do not want to follow those footsteps. I don’t want to be sad. I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to be hungry or living on the streets. I can’t really tell you what I want to be, but I do know what I don’t want to be”. I learn as much from him as he does from me and every day, every week day when it comes time for him to go to school or go home, he hugs me as tight as he can and tells me to smile. “Smile Ms. Allison!!” And I believe, because of him, I smile.