The Bubbles of Life

Natalie stood 1/3 my height and spoke as quiet as a mouse. She was my little girl who I babysat at Parents' Night Out tonight. I did a service event where each volunteer is paired with a kid and spends the night playing games with him or her. So Natalie was mine for the night! Intrigued with arts and crafts, she created every artistic creation that she could - a fan, a mini windmill, a mask, a crown, and an airplane. Watching her in pure happiness as she did something so basic as drawing on a crown brought delight to me. We played board games, did a scavenger hunt, and bowled in addition to all of those arts and crafts. In particular, when she and I played wac-a-mole with Liz and Natalie's sister, the expression on Natalie's face was priceless.

Part of it is related to the little Lehigh bubble that I am living in. No matter where I go, I seem to be living in a bubble. The Pinewood bubble. Now the Lehigh bubble. But it isn't a bubble unless you keep yourself trapped inside of it. Doing community events such as this one exposes me outside of the bubble. I haven't spent time with little kids in such a long time that the change of pace and environment was much needed. When I went to NYC previously this semester, seeing people of different age groups from elders to babies and of various economic levels from poor to very affluent brought me back into the real world. At college no matter where you are, there is much consistency and you can tend to forget what the world is like outside of that little bubble that you are inside. However, opportunities such as Parents' Night Out expose you to the real world again. It is all about what you choose to do. If you choose to stay inside that bubble, then realize that it is your choice to not go out into the community and change your life. It's all up to you. Your choices, your life.

Natalie's innocence brought me back to my childhood years. We were talking about holidays and - what do you know - we both share Christmas as our favorite holiday. As we reveled in our favorite holiday, I heard Natalie talk about Santa Claus. Good old jolly Santa! I miss setting our Christmas cookies, a glass of milk, and our wish lists on the fireplace mantle; staying up late in hopes to see Santa come down the chimney. And then that got me to thinking...when do kids find out that Santa Claus isn't real? Of course it is different for each person, but in general it is around the same age. Each stage of our life could be seen as a bubble. A bubble sheltering us from the influences outside of that life that we are living in the moment. Amazing how our lives can change so drastically with something as simple as Santa Claus. In life, we are constantly going through changes. Only with changes can we progress and develop to become (hopefully) bigger and better people. We learn from our changes and adapt according to the situations. So think fast....here comes life!