One sure-fire way to feel like a rock star is to volunteer in a kindergarten classroom. When I help out in T.Puzzle’s class once a week, I can’t help but feel amazing. After not seeing the kids in over three weeks due to winter break, they were especially delighted to see me again. This is how one girl greeted me:
“I missed you! I love your shirt! I love your hair! I love your shoes! You smell so pretty!”
That was only in the first five minutes. By the time my two-hour block of time was winding down, I had several lunch invitations and many exclamations of how much I was missed and adored.
It got me to thinking. They think I’m awesome and the feeling is mutual. Why is that? I realized it’s only because we see each other for short windows of time. All we see and look for is the good stuff. If we had to spend loads of time together, the bloom of good cheer most certainly would fade.
Take my relationship with T.Puzzle for instance. It has evolved from a Mommy’s Boy situation to a Stay-Away-From-Mom as much as possible kind of relationship. This tends to put me in a defensive frame of mind when I am evaluating his six-year oldness. Needless to say, my patience with him is sometimes used up even before he has a chance to speak.
What if, just for a moment, I imagined if someone who doesn’t see him very often, like you, were spending time with him? What would you see? Would this help me remember his own unique brand of awesomeness?
If you were meeting T.Puzzle for the first time, you would see a fun-loving, inquisitive, opinionated, confident little man with an extremely high adorability quotient. 
And guess what?
You’d be right.
