Lessons from Kindergarten

I think there’s a poem (of sorts) out there titled, “All I Ever Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten.”

It’s about kindness, washing your hands, taking care of yourself, etc. And that’s all great.

But seriously, let’s talk about everything practical you learn in kindergarten, such as cutting with scissors, using a glue stick, putting stickers on pages, coloring.

Those things…I use on a daily basis at work.

But wait. Let’s go back a couple of years. At my old job, for the year or so before they closed, I spent a stupid amount of time printing things on magnetic sheets, cutting those strips out to precise measurements and placing them on magnetic bulletin boards. I literally spent MONTHS doing this.

The few times one of the girls would ask me what I did at work that day, I’d say, “I practiced my kindergarten skills.”

These days, I use a glue stick daily. I stick stamps on envelopes daily. I use a highlighter to color specific words on pieces of paper…you get the gist.

I paid student loans until was 40 so that I could find jobs that let me use skills I learned in kindergarten. Am I bitter? Nah…I don’t want a high-stress job. Once I joined the workforce, I never wanted a career. I wanted a job that would let me go home at night and not think about work again until the next day.

I wanted a job that paid enough to keep a roof over our heads, food in our pantry and shoes on our feet. If we can afford a few extras like voice lessons and fancy running spikes, well, that’s nice too.

When I first went to college, I wanted to be a guidance counselor. That’s why I went into education. But I didn’t want to teach. I was told way back when that in order to be a guidance counselor, I had to teach for a minimum of three years. I thought I could do it. But as student teaching loomed that last year of college, I realized that I wasn’t cut out to be a teacher. So I let go of my counseling dreams and got my BA in English Literature instead of Secondary Education.

And here I am. Using all those kindergarten skills every day.

Life could be so much worse.