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I used to despise children. It was a defining character trait for me, actually. My friends and family knew, "Ali loves horses, hates big cities, could live off of ice cream alone, and hates children." Obviously the city standard has changed as well, but that change isnt't as life-altering.

I started babysitting kids when I was 11 or 12, and enjoyed the kids I worked with often, but unknown children were annoying and to be avoided like rabid hamsters. This is how I found a love and appreciation for workign with all kids: When I was 16 I went on a mission trip with my church to rural West Virginia. We were broken up into two groups- one helped repair houses, and the other ran a day-camp for the local kids. As I love tools and working with my hands, I begged and begged to be in that group, and told the organizers that I didn't get along with kids. Well, they decided to teach me a lesson and put me with the children. Damn them! I was so upset, but about a day and a half into the trip I was convinced that I had been missing out my entire life. I loved working with the kids, giving them attention that they responded to in so many different ways, and watching the attachment grow. It was a life-changing and improving experience. I hated leaving them at the end of each day, and cried like a baby on the day we left.

And now you know.

Peace, love, and ponies.

'In the faces of children I have seen a look of wisdom and of kindness expressed with such ease and such certainty that I know it was the expression of the whole race.

Feel the dignity of a child, do not feel superior to him, for you are not."
-Robert Henri