How a being a youth worker can create heartwarming moments with people

Hello everyone! Hope you're all having a great week so far, whatever you're doing.

Since I have a day to myself, I thought I'd share something that had happened whilst I was helping out at the Challengers Orange Aid event on Saturday. 

On Saturday, (13th of September) I had the privilege to be asked to help out at the 2nd time running annual Challengers' Orange Aid event. 

Me & my friend/colleague were in charge of manning the lego tent for the day, and I'm sure we had at least 10 kids come in to have a good build with them, as well as make one big scattered pile of different assorted legos.😂

That aside, we saw loads of other families thoroughly enjoying themselves too. Which was so lovely to see! Especially how they have such a good relationship with us as a service, and they know how well we support them whenever they need it.

I was sitting out by the lego tent for most of the day, and at one point, there was a boy who I recognised that went to the SEMH school I used to work at for 6 months (Grafham Grange). When he, and the mother were sitting close by our tent, the mother came over to me, and said that the boy recognises me from his school. He remembers my name as well. We both had a friendly chat for a few minutes, then when the mother & boy walked away, the boy said to me in a nice tone & manner: "Have a lovely day, and see you later".

This warmed my heart knowing that kids like him are perfectly capable of showing a kind personality when they are in a community friendly event. Especially when they remember you from their school setting. Fun fact: I had actually worked with this boy in IL before at my old school I used to work at, and I could hardly believe the difference in him when I saw him away from the school. This is purely all down to friendly interaction I had with him there.

Another time, there was another mother & son who approached me, and the son used to attend the previous Challengers scheme I worked at before it got shut down due to financial issues. The mother had a friendly conversation with me to begin with, by talking about how well her son is doing now since he aged out of Challengers 3 months ago.

She then kneeled by me to talk about some personal issues he'd been having over the past year (Won't go into any detail). The last few things she said was how much she appreciates as youth workers being there for the young people, like her son, as we make them feel accepted for who they are for what they are as individuals. She also added how she wants nothing else in the world other than her son to feel safe for who he is.

These are the pure reasons why I still carry on doing what I do as a youth worker, as I get to work closely with different young people by helping them be more confident with interacting with adults, as well as help them to have more confidence in themselves as they get older. The best part is when you know they know it too.🧡

Animals have a life too

Sort of a quickie for tonight, as I'll have more bigger content coming soon...

Whilst out on my walk last Saturday, I saw something which had strongly caught my attention. It happened to be a set up dog play area.

As soon as I saw it, I immediately thought to myself: "It's so heartwarming to see our furry friends having the same kind of fun as us human beings". 

Why the sympathy? I'll tell you this... Dogs are proven to be the most loyal pet any human being could have. They have the 24/7 dedication to look out for us, obedience and trust. With those things said, dogs do all that hard work just to become a loving member of someone's family/household. Which is why I think it's only fair that dogs should be allowed to let themselves free as a reward for everything that they do for human beings.

After all, a healthy dog is a happy dog.🐶

*Excuse the poor quality of this picture*

This was the dog area I had captured whilst out walking last Saturday.

My best nostalgic moment of all time

It's been a week since my last appearance, due to me focusing finishing College for the summer and going out to work. But here I am again in my free time, looking for ideas for my upcoming posts, when... ker-ching! I know what to post today!

As the above title states, this is a happend something which relates to ME, so it's not going to be a public educational post.

However, please do feel free to read if you are interested.

On this day in 2018... (29th June)

At 3:15pm, I was walking around my School car park trying to look for my taxi, when I happen to see my first ever taxi escort (when I was in reception class) having a conversation with my current escort; Kay.

Although, I've technically seen her around for 3 months by then, but when I first saw her for the first time in which seemed like a decade ago, I was like: "No way! That can't be her, my first ever escort who I haven't seen for ages!" Her name was Lee by the way.

Whilst Kay and Lee were enjoying their conversation, I walked up behind Lee's back and tapped her on the shoulder, then said: "Is your name Lee?" She replied with: "Yes." Then I asked if she knew who I was and replied with: "Yeah, I think so? You do look familiar"

I began to tell her who I was and how she used to be my first ever taxi escort during my first 2 years of School. Her next reaction made music to my ears, as she said: "Oh yes! You've grown so much since then!"

I sense in my head, this is right when she started getting flashbacks in of all these memories of when she used to be my first ever taxi escort, by playing with my toys before School started and tickling the palms of my hands whenever I slept in the taxi on my way home. I can tell by her reactions that she was just as happily heartwhelmed as I was when we began sharing our nostalgic memories to one another.

After our introduction, I said to Lee: "I saw you come back 3 months ago, and I wanted to go up to say hello to you, but I thought you wouldn't recognize me." She replied back with: "Well so you should, as I would've recognized you!"

I added on that our text driver used to be called Mel and if Lee still remembers her back then, which she does.

Finally, she said: "Aww, bless you. You've really made my weekend now that you've told me all that." As she still couldn't believe how much I've changed during all these years since we last saw each other, but Lee hasn't changed one bit, which made me recognize her in the first place. I was honestly amazed how she still looked the same the whole time.

I remember thinking to myself that this nostalgic moment made my weekend too.😊

That's the end of that.

Thank you for taking your time to read through my happy nostalgic story. Please feel free to let me know about what your thoughts are on it and I shall be back very soon with a normal educational post.