Just Keep Swimming...

Being Doc Ed is a lot of fun. Edu-taining the kiddos is great and sometimes I get some "thank you" gifts from the school teachers. The one pictured above was given to me by the teachers at Schulze Elementary School where I started the month doing two Doc Ed shows for the third grade students.

I was given a bag of treats that contained yummy "Goldfish" crackers and best of a kit with multi-colored sticky notes along with a calendar. On the outside cover was this parable: 

A man on the beach where thousands of starfish lay dying in the sun saw a girl tossing them into the sea, one by one.

"Why bother?" he asked."You wont make much of a difference."

Tossing yet another starfish into the sea, the girl said," I made a difference to that one." 

I don't see the school kids as starfish dying in the sun but I do hope I'm making a positive contribution to their lives. I'd  like to think I am. Not every child sitting at my presentations will be interested in the science aspect of the show. That's okay.  As long as I put a smile on his face I'm happy but if I can spark an interest in science in one child while making him smile and laugh all the better.  It's like that cliche' that says "If I can reach just one of them then I've made a difference." It went something like that. 

What I didn't anticipate when I started going to the schools as Doc Ed almost five years ago (jeez!!) was how the kids would make a difference in my life. As one get older life has pummeled you a bit as you struggle to make something of yourself and give meaning to your life. Sometimes I feel a little like one of those starfish dying in the sun. But whenever I walk into the presence of those school kids to do a show I'm back in the mighty sea swimming and feeling quite alive.