Once Upon A Time In Ky: fall

I can remember sitting in the passenger seat of my mom's car one glum afternoon and thinking to myself for the first time, Today was a bad day. I started to replay the days events over in my head, getting gloomier and gloomier by the minute. Soon enough we arrived at our destination, my Grandma's house. (Because I can't help but to mention her in every blog. She's that awesome.) As I descend towards the front door, something red catchers my eye in the green of the grass. It's just a leaf, that happens to be red, but it stops me in my tracks. It's the first red leaf of the year, and I have to show my Grandma. I pick it up and as I do I drop all of the gloom that has been following me around all day. As I race towards the front door now, leaf in hand, a fleeting thought crosses my mind... Maybe today isn't so bad after all.

I'm a lot older now but this week I had what by 7 a.m. in the morning I had already deemed, "A Bad Day." I was awoken in the middle of the night by a pesky nosebleed, I couldn't find a parking spot at school, everyone was getting on my nerves.. ya know just one of those days. By the time I was on my way to the dance studio, I was done. I had lost my voice. Teaching a dance class was going to be rough. Or so I thought. It's turns out my group of twelve Kindergartner's had other plans. Instead of me teaching them, they ended up teaching me a thing or to.

Upon entering the dance room I noticed that about half of the class was already in the room, sitting patiently criss-cross applesauce on the floor. I joined them, unprepared for what the next hour would entail. Shall we call it a series of mood altering events? Let's make a list:

"J" enters the room, presenting me with a bouquet of beautiful wildflowers that she has picked for me from her farm.

She drew me a picture too.

"M" cuddles up right next to me and tells me she has a secret, and whispers in my ear "You are my favorite dance teacher ever!"

"JC" enters the room, tackles me with a bear hug, kisses me on the cheek, tells me she loves me... and I think she may have even asked me to marry her somewhere in between...

At this point I take a deep breath and in my whisper voice explain my situation to them...

"K" looks at me quizzically, hits her palm against her forehead and shakes her head. I laugh.

I ask them what Disney princess this reminds them of, and they all know the answer.

We start class.

I lead them in warm-up. They follow.

I point to the left side of the room, they go line up to go across the floor.

I do the beginning step of their ballet dance, they rush to their beginning spots.

The "big kids" class comes over, they show them our dance. They clap for us enthusiastically.

. The other classes teacher looks impressed and says to me, "They did changements! They're too little!"

I motion over to their dance bags, they quickly put on their tap shoes.

Etc, etc, etc.

As I left I thought to myself, They were so good today! But that was a lie, because that's how they are every class. Each class I am bombarded with smiles, giggles, hugs, and yes sometimes even marriage proposals. They remind me of a lesson that I learned a long time ago. There are no bad days. There may be bad moods or bad moments, but when you least expect it you just might catch a glimpse of that little red leaf that turns your day around.