I had my feet on top of the counter and I was slowly dosing off. The room was dead silent, to the point where you could hear the sound of a pin drop. Then suddenly a large and somewhat frightening rush of small voices, all in unison screaming relentlessly filled the room. It was the early shift at the Washington Community Center located in Phoenix, Arizona and it was quite unexpected to hear such a loud boom early in the morning, but nonetheless it was nice to hear the cheer of children.

When I signed up for this position I knew I would have to interact with kids, but I never imagined it would be to such a great extent. Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against kids, but they do get a little frustrating at times. With their constant yells, screams and shananigans, you could see why I would feel this way. However, this same morning I realized that I was completely wrong in my mind thought.

As the sudden rush of kids began to fill the gymnasium, it suddenly all came to a halt. I walked up and I realized why this had happened. One of the little boys was standing in the center of all the commotion. He was surrounded by effervescent laughter and teasing. The boy turned red. It turns out that the boy had wet himself. The kids yelled, “I can’t believe he peed himself !”. And another said “what are you 5?”.He was damp, wet and humiliated. I ran to the boy and escorted him out of the room as quickly as possible. The boys’ name was Joseph, as I was talking to him I could sense a deep fear inside him. The boy knew that this event was going to stay with him for a long time. He felt conflicted and wondered why this had happened to him. His exact words were “This has never happened, I just don’t don’t get why it had to happen in front of all those people. I feel so embaressed” Joseph even contemplated moving because of the incident, but I talked to him and reassured him that everything was going to be alright. I went to the back and got the boy a fresh pair of pants. It took him a while but he finally gathered up his courage to go back in the room. And surely enough the boy was greeted with reassurment and kind laughs. None of the kids were making fun of him and this astonished me to be honest. I learned then that you have to give kids more credit. Although they may have a smaller body, their mind capacity and emotions are quite the same.