I was walking out of class one day when I received a message on my phone.

“Are you still interested in working at Kumon?” 

I applied to work in Kumon in June when I was bored and wanted something to do. Though I was surprised to get the offer in September, I accepted happily as it was an easy way for me to make more money.

It was too bad that I didn’t know the ‘easy’ part wouldn’t be true. 

On the first day of the job, I was overwhelmed. Kumon was like another world and none of the skills I learned throughout my life were useful when teaching children. Working with kids is tough. They are messy, loud, impatient and bad listeners. I don’t know why I thought I could be the master at controlling their behavior and teaching them lessons. At one point, the paycheck was the only thing keeping me there.

The hardest experience at Kumon was when I was learning how to teach very young kids. However, I started learning technical skills, but I also learned about myself. I learned that I work well with all ages of people. I learned that I need to improve on speaking more clearly. I learned that punctuality is not my best friend. I learned that teamwork is. I was not comfortable in Kumon, but I learned to grow into it. 

The kids I once didn’t want to spend time with, I became attached to and looked forward to seeing their eyes light up as they got a problem right all by themselves. I went from dreading my job to being grateful that my job is not only an activity, but also an escape. Kumon is like another world; one where I don’t think about any of my problems and I get to escape my life to go into the kids.

I was walking out of class one day, ready to go to Kumon, when I received a message on my phone.

“You’re doing a great job :)” 

Follow Sreeja (@sreejamudumby) and @CHSCampusNews on Twitter.