Anything Can Happen Child, Anything Can Be

Last summer, after the little girl I mentor came to Day Camp, she called me on Saturday and said, "Apurul, when I come to camp on Monday, will I need to bring my back-a-pack?"

It broke my heart to tell her that she only comes once.  Because she knows that I'm at camp every single week of the summer.   I can only give "my kids" one awesome week of summer, but I try to give them tons of quality time the rest of the year.  And since they're on Spring Break, I've been cramming.

Last week, we took a girls only trip to see Tangled.
Rapunzel: I've been looking out of a window for eighteen years, dreaming about what I might feel like when those lights rise in the sky. What if it's not everything I dreamed it would be?
Flynn Rider: It will be.
Rapunzel: And what if it is? What do I do then?
Flynn Rider: Well,that's the good part I guess. You get to go find a new dream.

How do I help these kids dream?  How do I share the keys to unlock a world beyond their neighborhood?  How do I instill not only one dream, but many?

Often, my dreams have been fed by great books.  A while ago, I decided that I would give "my kids" a love for bookstores.  Today, we tried a new one.  I wish you could have seen them squealing as they discovered Schuler Books in Grand Rapids.

The three of us picked a worn couch for silent reading.  I think it's a beautiful scene.

They loved watching ME read.  And I loved telling them about how fun it is to read a 700 page book that you never want to put down (The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand- read it?). They adore me, and it's so important that they get to see this side of me.

We also sat like grown-ups in the coffee shop and read the original version of Rapunzel.  You know, because we like to compare and contrast literature to film.

“Listen to the mustn'ts, child.
Listen to the don'ts. 
Listen to the shouldn'ts, 
the impossibles, 
the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves, 
then listen close to me... 
Anything can happen, child. 
Anything can be.” 
-Shel Silverstein

Posted in: Mentoring