SHIELDS

    When I was twelve I wore a paper route shield for the Long Island Press.  I delved into the folding of the daily newspapers transported them with a shopping cart and threw them onto the stoops of subscribers.   It was here, my first real job that i got paid for.  In this shield I learned systems of Paper Routes, learned what getting up out of bed and meeting responsibility was, and earning my keep, getting paid having a JOB.
     There was protection in that shield.  Protection against the emptiness that Life sometimes brings.  There was a knowing about how to do something that I could defeat poverty with.  As my savings grew I had visions of one day buying a car...a house.  I could open a bank account and save money to get the things I wanted

I could contribute to paying some of the family expenses and know what it was like to be a responsible member of my family.  I could help put food on the table and PROVIDE 

When I was a teen I worked at a supermarket. Gone were the days of the paper route and being in rain and snow...wet and cold.  In my store job I unloaded different kinds of foods onto shelves, put  price tickets on store items and used a machine to crush empty cardboard containers and made bales of them.  I wore an ID with my name on it that had a picture of my face.  I belonged.  I was a supermarket employee and got paid for it.  
Up to this point in my life my jobs were shields of existence...work..for pay. This was my LIFE.  Learning...doing...shielded in activities of different jobs.

And in the background of the supermarket job I volunteered on Saturdays in a recreation program for kids with disabilities. Kids who were called retarded,  physically handicapped, deaf and blind were there. The program was an offshoot of a summer program I had volunteered in and really enjoyed.  There were arts and craft activities⅔, music dance time, And snack time.  All these in athree hour Saturday program.   

 it wasn't until I was in my twenties that my shields were bumped up a level when I learned about kids with autism and what it felt like to interact...to watch them..learn about them..teach them.  It wasn't until my shields became different.    kind of protections...with a different level of responsibility.   This was not just a job.  This was not just learning how to do something..this was a shield of caring about people.  And helping them.  This was better..different...More IMPORTANT than anything that I learned thus far.  
   And in learning about helping I grew in so many ways.  It was more than just a responsibility.   More than how to DO.  It was a shield that I was to have for the next 30 years.  And under them I was to be called, named and defined as "assistant"  "teacher's aide", "paraprofessional"   "teacher", "assistant principal" and "principal."  But all those labels could not fully define me. Because they didn't describe my heart.  They could never fully describe the shield that protected me, the shield that covered my Heart.

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