F.L.O.C

I volunteer with an organization called For Love of Children in Adams Morgan (NW D.C). Due to work and personal obligations I have not been able to commit to the every Saturday morning schedule, but I've made myself available for emergency needs and they called me up on Thursday to come in. The young girl that I usually work with now attends the Tuesday night tutoring sessions so instead of her, I was introduced to a seven year old angel named "Nina-Simone" to tutor.

Nina Simone hated my guts from the moment she laid eyes on me. This was difficult for me because I have never met a child that just flat out did not like me! I was unsure of how I was going to overcome this barrier between Nina Simone and I so that we could proceed with the task at hand (me tutoring her). In any event, we'd managed to get into some work for a while when suddenly she jumped up, went to the dry erase board and began writing a love letter to her former tutor. It read: "Dear Ms. Jazmine, I love you and I miss you". So since we were there to tutor in reading , I asked her to read the ode to Ms. Jazmine aloud to me. Instead, Nina-Simone began sobbing uncontrollably. I was like, OMG! Nina cried and cried until she made me cry. I held her, attempted to validate her feelings and allow her the space she needed to grieve the loss of her beloved Ms. Jazmine. I felt like such an intruder.

Eventually, the crying ceased and she wanted to read her book that she'd selected. She turned her back to me and read for the rest of the session. When it was over she went upstairs to wait on her mom and I stayed downstairs to work on my lesson plan for next Saturday's tutoring session. What can I say? I am a sucker for children and after all, she needs the consistency of one tutor because she clearly does not deal with separation well.

Suddenly Nina Simone came back downstairs and handed me a note that read: "I love you, you love me, but I do not even know your name". LOL!! I told her my name and she asked me if she could give me a kiss. I happily obliged and Nina-Simone planted one on my cheek then went about her merry way. I guess it's safe to say that I made a new friend.

After that emotionally charged two hours, I headed to Tryst for some of my favorite Chamomile/Lavender tea to calm my darn nerves then headed home.