For the Kids

I've been struggling with what to call this post because rather than rants about teachers and how bad they have it I actually want to focus on the student. I feel like most things I've been reading from teachers has been focused on their pay. However, I think we often forget the reason that we teach, and it's for the kids more than anything.
 I started back at school last week, and I was feeling bittersweet about the whole experience. On one hand, I'm leaving my daughter and putting her in daycare. This in itself goes against every instinct I have towards the matter. Surprisingly, all I wanted to do after I had her was stay home. I never had any inkling that that would be something I wanted to do, but if it was a viable option I would definitely have taken it and stayed home with her. Nonetheless, I am still back at school, and the monetary pay versus daycare is still beneficial enough to be at work. I'm loving interacting with adults, interacting with the kids, and really feeling like a contributing member of the team.
One thing that I didn't think I would feel this year was empathy for the kids. Not that I didn't think I would connect with them, but I was more focused on my own daughter and not so much the students. I really prayed about not having to go back to work, but I think God's plan was for me to help these kids. Last week I did a journal entry with them where we decided to "bottle up a memory", and I just wanted to gauge where they were in the writing process so my thought was to get them writing and then focus in on the skill set they needed. The entries I read were astounding. One boy discussed how his father overdosed and died and how he dealt with it. I know another girls in foster care and she wrote about her "mom", and another boy wrote about meeting his real father for the first time and helping out with his family photography business. These kids have only had me for a week; yet they're opening up their hearts and emotions to me. They really struggle, and it kills me now as a mom to see when their own parents aren't involved or when they're struggling with their every day things.
I guess overall I just really hope I can make a difference in these kids' lives. It really brings it all back to center that it doesn't matter what the politics are, it doesn't matter all that crap going on it's really for the kids.