A special job

What makes this "job" special? A lot of things make it unlike many other jobs. First of all, it is not 9-5...ever. I spend most mornings preparing activities and practices, reaching out to different businesses or   local non-profits, updating our social media. We do not really have a real office space nor a particular daily routine. Many days I spend more time than I would like running to develop pictures or talking to the mayor's office about our field or getting supplies for the office...literally sometimes running around a city to get it all done. In the afternoon or early evening, we have practice or an activity or a game or a study hour or house visits or some combination. The end of the day is often the "real meat," if you will, and is usually stuff on which I judge my whole day or sometimes week. Because sometimes try as we might to avoid it, an activity turns into a mess, a girl cries or refuses to participate, a practice is dragging or a game is lackluster. And though those days happen, and I think they happen to everyone, sometimes, maybe every couple weeks or sometimes even longer, another type of day happens. A day where I spend the whole day planning every last detail of an activity and collecting and preparing just the right materials. A day where the girls arrive at the office all with spirited grins and can-do attitudes. A day where each girl is eager to participate and excited to learn from one another. A day where every girl sprints to win competitions and shout raucously in support of one another. A day that ends in uncontrollable laughter and spontaneous high fives among teammates. A day where an activity spills over two hours but no one seems to notice. 

One of those days happened yesterday. And reminded me that what makes this job special is that it is not really a job at all. It is so much more than that.