Teacher's Pet

I know it's unprofessional to have favorites, but well...I have a favorite.

Her name is LaPenge, she's in my first grade class, and she can most accurately be described as A Hot Mess.

Every day, the first grade girls line up on the benches before practice: excited, bashful, orderly.  And everyday, approximately 15 minutes late, LaPenge comes tearing over the hill - limbs akimbo, backpack undone, hair standing straight on end.  

She never wears her soccer uniform.  She doesn't understand a word I'm saying.  She can't seem to button her shirt correctly, and when she sits...well, it's kind of like watching jello sit - everything just sorta goes everywhere.  

But therein lies LaPenge's charm: she simply doesn't care.

It's a quality we all possess at some point in our lives - we're born into this world perfect, without judgement or defenses.  As we get older, we tend to lose track of our innate sense of self...it gets covered up by our developed egos, we become conscious of the way we look and act..

LaPenge has managed to hold onto this innocence, this uninhibited self, longer than the other girls her age.  While they are posing for the camera, making serious faces, LaPenge is off in the corner, busy contemplating her naval.  

I love her for how oblivious she is, how uncensored.  But the real clincher comes when you call her name and she turns to you, a look of sheer, unadulterated joy plastered across her face.  It makes me laugh out loud, every time.  This girl IS Love - it radiates from her every pore, unsullied and without opposite.  I may be her teacher, but I think there's a lot I can learn from little LaPenge.

I think we might be soul mates.