This weekend I saw just how resilient children can be. I had the opportunity to visit the Sigma Sigma Sigma Foundation Robbie Page Play Atrium at UNC Children’s Hospital, and it was an experience I will never forget.
If it weren’t for the IVs and hospital gowns, you would have no idea there was anything wrong with these children. Despite suffering from physical ailments, I don't think I saw one child without a smile on their face the entire time we were there. They're kids, and that's all they wanted to be. For a brief moment, we were able to see these children forget about their struggles and just enjoy being kids. They were funny, sarcastic, sassy, and radiant bundles of joy. For a moment they weren't patients, they were just children.
It really puts life into perspective to see children that deal with things most adults can't even fathom running around, laughing, and playing without a care in the world. There were a few moments where I had to take a step back and reevaluate the things I let bother me. I have control over most everything that "ails" me, these kids don't. They don’t get to decide to just cut the bad things out of their lives, but, for the most part, I can make that decision. And yet, they don't look at it that way. They're happy. They're just kids. Yes, they're sick or injured, but they don't let that define them.
This weekend, I learned a valuable lesson from some of the strongest people I have ever met, and they had no idea how much of an impact they were making on me. It's the little things in life that we take for granted. We stress over things that we probably won't even remember fifty years from now. We can learn so much from children and their resilience in almost every situation, and this weekend only helped to validate that I am pursuing the only career fit for me: working in the field of education, where I can see young people at work every day.
