Chapter Six

Miss Michelle to 19, Mommy to 1

At the end of summer 2007, my summer job at a day care had ended and I was in need of another job. I walked into a day care in my hometown just trying to see if they had any part-time after school jobs, and I walked out of there with a full-time assistant teaching job. The day care offered a state lottery funded Pre-K program and since my goal in life was still to be a teacher I saw this as a great opportunity and a foot in the door. My boss had also worked at the day care when I attended it briefly when I was a youngster, which probably also helped me in getting the job. I didn't drop out of school, but I did only go part-time at night two nights a week. This is part of the reason why I didn't graduate this past May. 


My first day on the job was a little rocky, as most first days are. The lead teacher was a little spastic and seemed really frazzled but I kept on trucking that day, trying to learn my student's names and the way things were to be ran. That afternoon as I was preparing to leave, I was called into the office. Me, fearing I had already screwed up, was a little panicked. Needless to say, they wanted to know how my first day had gone and to tell me that the lead teacher I had worked with that day was no longer an employee and then introduced me to the new lead teacher, Linda. Thankfully, Linda and I clicked immediately. She had taught the Pre-K program before so she knew what she was doing and I learned a lot from her. My students took an instant liking to me and they made waking up at 6am to go to work well worth it. 

One student in particular took an extra liking to me, and so did her dad. Reagan's dad was a single parent to her and her older brother Rilyn. Their mom had left them (at the time) and at Reagan's ripe young age of four needed a mother figure and she picked me. One day, I looked up and she just called me "Mommy" and I know some of you are going to think that I should have told her she couldn't call me that, but I smiled and hugged her. Before long, the entire day care saw the special relationship between Reagan and I and her dad and I had became really good friends. Reagan would come home with me in the afternoons sometimes and I made an effort to spend a lot of time with her because I sometimes felt like she felt abandoned by the only mother-figure in her life. I genuinely loved Rea like she really was mine. I was called Mommy by her until a year or so after I had moved off, which is understandable.

Telling Rea that I was moving out of town was so hard. I didn't know how to really explain what I was doing or where I was going and I felt like I was abandoning her like her real mother did. The last few weeks of school I made it count, and spent more time than usual with Reagan. To this day, I still ask her dad "how my babies are doing?"  Rea will start 2nd grade this year. Perry, her dad, sends me pictures and updates me on Facebook how she's doing and it's hard to believe how grown up she is.

I still love my little girl.

Easter 2008