Last Days

Tomorrow is my last day of lab.  For those of you who don't know, I'm studying elementary education and what we call "lab" is really going into the public schools to teach.  This semester I was put in a 4th grade class in a school about 45 minutes away.
But I feel like the last few semesters have really helped prepare me for my "student teaching" in the fall.  I know I'm going to get into internship and later get a for real job and be completely overwhelmed, but I think I'll be OK in the end.
This semester hasn't just gotten me ready intellectually though.  For the first time, I feel absolutely positive that this is what I want to do.  If I graduated and had to do anything else except teach, in some capacity, I think I would just be miserable.  I need kids in my life!  Even with all their annoying, whiny, snotty, mean, ignorant, and lazy ways, I love kids.
I know this probably makes me sound like some kind of crazy person.  But really, they are just great.  They get so excited about everything!  True, that comes with a lot of drama sometimes, but it also means a chorus of "cool!"s in science.  I've never seen grown-ups as pumped up over anything as I've seen a bunch of 10-year-olds over making an electric circuit.  And kids are funny!  Mostly because they haven't yet refined their use of humor.  They'll say and do the weirdest things and think it's hilarious.
Kids are hopeful too.  Not as much as I used to think.  I know that by 4th grade they are already pretty set in their ways.  But the elasticity of even an older child compared to that of an adult is, well, encouraging.  Adults get this thing called belief perseverance, where even in the face of contrary evidence they hold onto their beliefs.  Maybe I'm naive, but I feel like kids still actually listen to what you're saying to them (if you can actually get their attention).            
I was talking to an older teacher once about some of the children at the after-school club where I work.  I mentioned that sometimes it's difficult for me to be stern with a kid who's joking around and misbehaving, just because I have to try hard not to smile.  She said that after a while it's not funny anymore, that they push their limits.  But I hope I still always find a child's antics amusing, even if I do get adept at pretending disappointed in their outrageous behavior.  I hope I still always like kids.  Tell me to quite if I don't.