After night gym (three nights a week the students can come for a few hours to play in the gym) tonight, I decided to borrow Anya and take a run around the village loop. Not even a half a mile into my run, I saw one of my third graders riding his bike down the road. He’s one of the sweetest little boys ever, and he always seems to catch me out on a walk. He asked me where Anya and I were heading and then asked if he could ride along with us. Being his polite self, he told me that even if he got tired that I didn’t need to stop for him and that he could catch up with me. I know the kids do it all the time, but my NJ roots get the best of me and I don’t like them being out at night on their own (even though it’s still light out- there’s been lots of bear sightings recently), so I was happy to have him with me rather than on his own.
We made our way around the loop with him talking to me and asking different things about my life. After about 20 minutes, we were talking, when he suddenly asked “Miss Norman, if I told you something and asked you not to tell, would you promise not to?”. Now here’s where the past three years of being a FYL (First Year Leader aka freshman mentor) kicked in and I explained to him that I was happy that he wanted to share something with me, but that I couldn’t promise to keep his secret. I explained that if I thought another adult needed to know the secret that I would have to tell them. But that if I didn’t think it needed to be shared then I would happily promise to keep my lips sealed. Truth be told, after the week I’ve had, I was extremely nervous to hear what he wanted to share with me.
He thought about what I’d told him for a minute or two and then said “But do you promise to keep the secret, if it’s not a bad one? Because I think it’s a good secret”. So I told him that it all depended on what he told me. He decided it was worth it and told me the secret. Unfortunately, I can’t share his secret because I made a promise. However, I can say that it’s a very good secret, and I’m glad he decided to share with with me:) I’ll also add in that I’m surprised he’s been able to keep it to himself! This secret is for me to know and you all to find out (there will come a time when I’m allowed to share it and I’m sure it will be sooner rather than later).
It was nice to have time to talk to him as he accompanied me on my run, he really is a great boy. I also give him credit for pedaling the four miles along with me. I made sure to run by his house and his grandpa’s house so he had two chances to stop. But he hung in there with me until after we’d dropped Anya back off and then headed back to the school. I ran most of the way back to his house with him and then thanked him for keeping me safe:) His back was towards me at this point, and yet I could see his reaction of surprise and joy to hearing his teacher thank him for protecting her. I have a feeling he’ll be “running into me” on more walks in the future.
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