Giving back to others

Today I took a professional development day to listen to a panel of indigenous people talk about their experiences working with children and their families. I was very touched by each of their stories. I love how much I’m learning and keep learning from these amazing people. It’s hard to hear how about how they were changed or made fun of for having brown eyes. It’s hard to hear how they were treated. I love their courage to be able to speak out and tell their stories and help us understand their language and culture. Each story was unique.

One of the guys spoke about still working with the children and teaching them about cultures and learning and teaching them their language and his face and whole body lit up when he talked about the children. The children teach him everyday and he teaches them. Towards the end of the session this man told us that he was part of the residential school and how he had been stripped of everything in his culture. When he came home his mom spoke no English and how he had to learn his language and culture again. He became an Early childhood educator because his childhood was stolen from him and he wanted to make sure that that never happened to any child again.

His story really hit home for me and as I was driving today I keep thinking about what this man said. I realized that this indigenous man is changing lives of children and families he works with everyday. He took his past that had been ripped from him and he turned out into something every beautiful. He talked about watching these children grow up and learn in healthy environments.

I realized that he used his truama from his life to bring something lovely to children now. He’s an advocate for all the children who are in his care. Why it touched my heart so much is that’s exactly what I’ve done with my life and my past. I became an Early childhood educator because of not wanting children to ever endure what I did as a child. I stand up for those who cannot speak out for themselves. That would be our precious children. I lost my childhood but I can help those children that come every day to school. I can make them laugh and make them feel comfortable and trust me that I will help them.

Love is medicine no matter who it comes from. Make sure that whether you work with children at school, Daycare or your own children let them know you love them, and that they can be whomever they want and that through kindness and love we can change children’s lives one life at a time. ❤️