I Miss Maxi

Although I’m not teaching anymore. There were moments I want to remember, I want to treasure as it is a very happy or sad memory. A month or two after quitting, receptionist at the place I used to work texted me, telling that one of the kid’s moms, Maxi’s mom, asked for my number. I was surprised because I have never personally talked to her. I only met Maxi in the last 2 months of my teaching. I told her I didn’t mind giving my number.

Maxi was almost 5yo that time. He was still in kindergarten. When he first came, his mom told me he hates his previous English class because it was too noisy and they played too much in class. I was amazed by such a remark from a 5yo kid. I found out that Maxi was brilliant; he spoke well for a toddler and a non-native speaker.

Maxi was way too perfect as a kid. He was clean, he was tidy, he was nice, he was smart, and he has no flaw for a kid like him. He used to have problem making friends before he came. In my class, I was trained to deal with such kid; I tried my best approaching him since he first looked like he didn’t believe me. It didn’t work out well, but I believe in process and I understood that time worked better.

One day while the kids were doing written tasks, I hummed a song unconsciously. I actually had this bad habit of humming while teaching. I hummed some of The Scripts’ songs. Suddenly, Maxi stood up and continued singing the song I sang. We ended up singing “the man who can’t be moved” together. When we finished, he laughed widely that I also wanted to laugh looking at his smiley eyes and his shoulder shaking because maybe he thought that it was ridiculous we sang that song together. Maxi looked so cute that day. He said that he really loved that song. Since then he got a lot closer to me and he opened up more to other friends. His mom also stopped standing in front of the classroom door (she did stand there because Maxi didn’t want to be in class unless she did).

A week after the call from the receptionist, I visited my previous working place. She asked me whether Maxi’s mom had contacted. I didn’t think I get any messages. I asked her what happened. Well, it turned out that after I quilted, Maxi kept asking for me, “where’s ms wida? Why she is not coming? I want ms wida, can she come? Why not? I miss ms wida, where’s ms wida?...” there the questions goes back and forth. I felt like crying for that. From Maxi's mom, I heard that Maxi had changed a lot since he came to my class. after lessons, on their way back home, he would talk a lot about me to his mom. At home, he would tell every thing, what I told him, how we played, what we learned, from A to Z. Coming to our class was always exciting for him. This made me feel relieved and sad at the same time. relieved for we both did well, sad for the fact that I wouldn't know when I would meet him again.

Maxi was one of many adorable kids I met during my teaching career.  Now that I look back, those times with the kids were very precious. Kids are honest, kids are pure. They have no hatred that no matter how annoying they gets, I can never be mad at them.

Ah, what I am blabbering about. I might just MISS Maxi and other Maxis too much.