Hi! My name is Michelle John! Full disclosure I was named after “Michelle” on Full house and that has now become my full personality. I’m from Bangalore and I absolutely love it there. I am currently in college, pursuing Journalism and Mass communication. I had to do an internship at an NGO during my summer vacation. I was dreading the idea of wasting my summer vacation playing and teaching kids. To be honest, I’m not much of a kids person. I’m the type of person to immediately pass your baby back to you as soon as you give him to me. Children scare me. They’re so noisy and honestly they kind of judge you (You know what I’m talking about!). But let me tell you, my internship changed me. I fell in love with those children. They escaped along with their mothers  from a very abusive household. The concept of love was so foreign to them but they knew that they loved the idea of being cared for. The kids started calling me “akka” which means elder sister in Tamil. I almost cried. I’ve never been someone’s akka. Someone’s protector and I was so ready for this role. Another role I was given but never had before was the role of a teacher. Now eight year old Michelle would cry if she saw her dream come true at nineteen. I’ve always dreamed of being a teacher but never pursued it because I thought I didn’t have the patience for it. Turns out I was right, teaching children was a task but it was a task I learned to get better at. My goal was to be the teacher I always wanted to have and I am happy to say that I achieved my goal. I saw two boys who couldn’t even count to 200 without crying, do addition and subtraction with a smile on their face. I saw a boy who struggled to read, beg me to let him read a full chapter with no help. I saw a three year old girl learn to identify colours and jump up and down in happiness when she got it right.
Those kids changed my heart. They made me realise that children were still so new to the world. Everything around them was always a discovery and maybe because I grew up, I forgot about being curious. But those kids brought it back for me. They made me realise we must never get “used” to the world. Being with those children, the children who have been through experiences no person, let alone child should go through still show up everyday with a big smile on their face made me learn to be grateful for the little things. I learned to be more childish. I learned that sometimes you just need to play a fun of game of dodgeball and sometimes you just need to have a random dance party during school. I learned that being a little childish is the best thing you can do as an adult.