Fresh Start, Fresh Snow

Even though I have no classes on Fridays, I am happy to report that I am going to be busy tomorrow… working! Yes, that’s right. I finally won a last-minute shift thanks to some luck, my impeccable email-answering skills, and the fact that I have my iPad connected to me at all times! So I guess I will be gaining some more experience to write about. But for now, I thought I would write about my whirlwind week of shifts in January.

At the start of any new semester, we get a lot of new students. Lots of new students means a lot of people needed to show them around and get them feeling at home in Canada. Even though I know this, I was still shocked to see I had 4 shifts the first week of classes. I was excited, but a little wary because now I had to balance my new classes and a lot of early morning shifts.

And when I say early, I mean early. I’m not used to waking up at 5:30 in the morning in order to catch a 7:00 bus! But waking up at ungodly hours and snoozing through my first week of classes was worth it to be involved with start up week. It was the new students’ first week in a strange country, when their wonder and excitement outweighs their jet lag. I felt like a terrible student because I’ve never been as excited about going to school as they were!

A couple moments of that week really touched my heart. I was leading some students around the campus when some light flakes of snow started to fall from the sky. It never seriously snows in Victoria, so I barely noticed it. But it was a bigger deal for one of my students, who stopped abruptly and stared at the sky. He turned to me and asked, “Is this snow?” “Um, yeah, it’s not very much. But it’s snow,” I replied. He stared at the sky again and mumbled, “I’ve never seen snow before”. His face lit up like a child’s, and it made me pause and smile for a moment. Something I saw every year and took for granted was like a dream come true for him. It’s the same feeling I got when seeing the cherry blossoms in Japan for the first time.

Another rewarding moment happened when I was saying goodbye to the students at the end of the day. I asked them if they had any last minute questions or concerns before they went back home to their host families. One of them shyly said, “Well, I want to make sure I get on the right bus. I don’t want to get lost.” I helped him find his bus, and told him that I had also been really nervous about getting lost when I first moved to Victoria. He smiled at me and said, “Yes. When you are in a new place, you feel almost like a child in kindergarten.”

This job makes me realize that the smallest things in life can make a difference. You can find joy in them; like snow falling from the sky and flowers in full bloom on a tree. And they can bring comfort to someone who is starting a new life far away from all they’ve known.