Warm Fuzzies

I was invited by one of my students to watch her tae kwon do class tonight. She won first place at a tournament last weekend and tonight she received her yellow belt, first class. Since I was unable to go to Riverside to see her competition, she asked if I could watch her award ceremony.

I have to admit that my initial (internal) reaction to the invitation was dismay. When I am done with a day of struggling to get my students to learn and work and play nicely, the only thing I want to do is head home, eat dinner and veg out. I rarely leave my house after 5:30pm during the week. Even grocery shopping waits until the weekend.

However, the thought of disappointing this little girl was too much to bear. She is one of the few in the class who still gives me hugs. She tries hard every single day and I can see the determination in her eyes. She has had a particularly difficult time lately, because her father is serving a 14 month stint in Iraq. I couldn't refuse.

I am so glad that I went. It did me good to see her eyes light up when she noticed me. We snuck in during the class right before hers and sat on the sidelines. When she saw me, she gave a HUGE wave, hollered to her mom "Mommy! Mrs. H is here!", and ran over to show me her trophy. All during her class, as she received her new belt, listened to her instructor, and broke a board with her fist (!!!), she kept looking my way to make sure I was still there. Still watching. Still enjoying the performance.

And I was.