As a teacher I love analyzing different grades and children and thinking about at what age students begin recognizing this sense of self, this understanding that life is beautiful, this appreciation that they are something special with talents to offer. I could be a bit biased, but I feel like this incredible sense of self takes place in third grade. I think there is a transition where these young people realize that there is something larger than themselves, that we exist to create joy and collaborate with others and that we constantly can improve ourselves to be the person we know we are meant to be.I think it tends to cloud up in the adolscent years but then within adulthood we find this same light turn on within ourselves. Nevertheless, this first kindling of the light that is our soul, is so very important. And I just have this feeling, it starts in the grade in which I teach.

At the beginning of the year I always smile at the quiet nature of my classroom. Some students arrive shy and then halfway through the year, the magic begins to unfold. There is not a quiet or shy student in my classroom. Every student says how they feel, they know how to empower others and speak their mind. And there has been this overwhelming sense this year that my students fully understand what it means to produce joy and spread it onto others. 

YOU is a sense of purpose. Even if the purpose seems small. One of my newest students read his second picture book all by himself to the class. We always have read alouds with this student at 2:00 on Friday. A purpose to practice his English but also connect with the other students through his artwork and making of props that coincide with the book he is reading. Today's read aloud was a special reading of Brown Bear Brown Bear by Eric Carle. He had made indiviual masks for every student. As they read, they held up the masks to act out the story. And to think that there is whimsy in you, even if you has a language barrier. Whimsy still shines through. 

Later this evening, I attended a Spring Recital with my flute students. One of our volunteers who just had a stroke arrived to play his instrument. Talk about understanding the whimsy in YOU. He stood up and played an improv solo during a jazz rendition of "Won't You Be My Neighbor" and in that moment, there became such a clarity for me and all who know him regarding this sense of YOU. Because though his memory is not as keen as it was and his hand does not move as fast, in that moment, you felt his neighborhood. You felt how thankful he was to a be alive. He was aware what that whimsical YOU stood for. Who knew a one minute solo could bring an audience to tears.

As I looked up at the sky on my drive home I saw this mixture of yellows and pinks and purples so vivid and so beautiful, that it made me wonder whether our soul is made up of the colors of the sunset. Maybe our soul, when we recognize it, the souls I see every day in my classroom, maybe those souls become the sunset. 

Because the ultimate goal is for them to one day become the adults that sit on that stage after a bad time and realize that nothing is stronger than their purpose and their whimsical YOU. 

Regardless, I can go to bed knowing tonight that my third graders have found the sunset. They have found the YOU. And once found, it can never be fully lost. That much I know.  And on nights like tonight, where I begin to think about all the sunsets played today, I become closer and closer to finding my whimsical YOU, too.