its all worth it.

I have come to realize that work is a lot of...work. 

It is time consuming, demanding, stressful and hard. 

I have definitely learned this at my first {almost} year at my job. 

I didn't realize that party planning at a school could be that stressful! 

But it has been, especially this summer. A lot more work than I wanted to sign up for. 

The demands of my summer job were really stressful and hard and most days I absolutely hated it. 

I think a big part of that was because the kids were missing. 

I do so much every day to help the kids, and without them, I was real annoyed in Draper most days. 

I realized this one day last week when I got the best compliment I could have ever dreamed of...

We just hired a new lady to be apart of our team and one day she excitedly told me that her best friend had a student that was in the 7th grade at my school last year. 

This was exciting to hear because this 7th grade boy was just my absolute favorite. 

We bonded over BYU Basketball and I think I cared for him a little extra because he was just so sweet and unfortunately he has had a pretty rough life growing up. 

He lives with his grandparents and the grandma is the best friend to my new coworker. 

 This student ended up having a rough year too and decided not to return to APA. 

However, the coworker relayed to me that the grandma had inquired about me, wondering if she had met me yet. 

She explained how her grandson had a hard time at APA and yet the only person at the school to make a difference for him was me. 

That I was one of the only ones who acted like I cared about him and really helped him make it through the year. 

It was such a humbling experience and immediately made me get teary eyed. 

And in that moment I realized that its all worth it. 

Everything I do at school, the stress and the sometimes annoyance of my job, all went away knowing that I do make a difference. 

Its a really odd feeling but I know that I love these kids. 

I love that I have 165 kids that I feel like are mine. 

School starts on Monday and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little excited.