The Summer
Flu: It seems to happen to me every year. My body’s hot all over and the
heat outside just adds to the burn. Desperate times call for desperate
measures. True confession: I stood in the garage, with the freezer
door open, head against a loaf of frozen French bread, for longer than I'd care
to admit.
A Girl’s Gotta Do What A Girl’s
Gotta Do: I’ve
been banned from drinking out of my normal blue reusable cups (don’t ask), and
there’s something about our dark blue opaque glasses that gives me an odd vibe
I can’t quite put my finger on. So, I’ve taken to drinking all liquids out of either big
German beer steins or fifties diner inspired glass Coke bottles. It keeps things
interesting. Hey, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.
Getting
Lost: Let me just tell you, I love getting lost. If I’m ever the designated
navigator and you’re driving, we are most likely going to get lost. I don’t do
it purposefully, but if the next turn isn’t black and white, I’ll find my own shade
of gray and roll with it. I recently went to San Francisco with a friend and had our getting-lost-ness been judged, we’d have received the highest marks in all categories. We got into the city and before
you could say woopsie-daisy, we were absolutely, 100% lost. After an hour
of navigation help from Tom-Tom the GPS and a few strangers, we finally pulled onto
Montgomery Street in the presidio of
San Francisco (not to be confused with the Montgomery Street of regular San
Francisco). Needless to say, a heavy dose of laughter and a sprinkling of photos to document the occasion put this adventure in my Top 5 Getting Lost Adventures. Yes, that list actually exists.
What Up,
Walt Disney: And the story continues! Surprisingly enough we did not come to the
city to get lost, but to visit The Walt Disney Family Museum. Cue angel choirs
and bright white lights. I highly, highly
recommend this museum to anyone and highly, highly, highly recommend it to
dedicated Disney fans. (!!!). Fact of the matter is, Walt Disney’s a pretty cool
guy, and the museum is super detailed, and the world’s a better place because
of him. So that’s that. I’ll step off of my soapbox now…but really, you should
check this place out.
Celebrations:
Summer celebrations have been consuming my weeks and weekends. Grad
parties, sunsets at the lake, Bachelorette nights, dinners with
family friends. All those good summer vibes mixing together, hot afternoon
get-togethers overflowing into cool summer nights. Besides all these normal
celebrations, we’ve enjoyed some very special ones here in the Hagen household.
My brother came to visit before hopping over to Alaska for a conference, my Dad
celebrated his birthday, and my grandparents celebrated 60 years of marriage
(wowsa!). They’re 82 and as adventurous, mischievous, and funny as ever.
Epiphany of
the Week: Working with kids is so, so good for me. Kids smile and laugh and they give
good, strong, sometimes awkward hugs. Kids dream big dreams and expect big
things from you. There’s no pretense, no low goals. They look at you with big
eyes…and they trust you. Five minutes after being back at preschool on day one
a girl looked at me and said, “Miss Emily, I love you!” Kids' ability to marvel
over things is out of this world. Are they really excited that snack is veggie
straws and water? Believe me, they will let you know it. They will eat those
veggie straws like they're 5-star kiddie caviar. This honest vulnerability and joy
seems to steadily decline into adulthood unless we fight for it.
Most
of the time, it seems to me, adults don’t want the world to know how they are
really feeling. So they build up these big walls, creating a glass ceiling that
very few people are allowed to pass by. You see kids, they don’t have that
glass ceiling. It’s pretty obvious how their day is going because they are poignantly
truthful. This can translate into (1) giggles, smiles, hugs, constant
questions, and “Miss Emily can I sit in your lap?” or “Miss Emily, look at my
airplane!” or (2) dramatic tears and tattling because so-and-so took their toy.
I’m not saying that it’s a good idea for grown adults to meltdown multiple
times a day, but there is definitely a lesson we can pull from here. Kids
aren’t afraid to love. Kids are honest and full of joy. They are experts at
living in the moment and living true to their feelings. And most importantly, they
have grand expectations of life and of other people.
Working with kids is really good for me because they remind me to step out and be honest
and real with myself and with others. A big part of my personality is my
sweetness and smile, but there’s an outgoing, Emily-with-no-filter, who says a
combination of very strange, very blonde, and very naïve things, that few people witness. I’m an introvert, that’s
just who I am, and that's never going to change. But the world could use a
little more exuberance. It could use my joy and my smile, even if only a few
people see and especially if it puts me out of my comfort zone.
Just
some food for thought. My mind’s a turnin’ on this Sunday afternoon.
Here’s
to kids, and the beauty of their raw, real joy, and the gratitude that can come
from spending time with some of life’s tiniest and greatest teachers. Because
when you see life through a lens of gratitude and childlike joy, there’s not
much left to complain about.
