Given the opportunity, most people would take the chance to travel back in time, which, in a sense, is what I got to do on “Bring Your Child to Work Day” this year. I decided to go to work with my dad at the elementary school, where he teaches physical education. I thought I would just sit back and watch the little kids have their fun, but throughout the day I started to have fun too.

To start off the day, my dad and I had bus duty. Once the buses started pulling up to the school you could already hear the sound of excited students. Kids in grade levels kindergarten up to sixth grade came running out of the buses. They were actually excited to be at school and couldn’t wait to get inside. Which, from the perspective of a high schooler, seems a bit odd.

Once bus duty was over, it was time to go inside and get ready for the gym classes to begin. The first class of the day was the kindergarteners. As soon as they stepped into the gymnasium, they were all screaming and running around at full speed. As they bounced off the walls, I thought that it was humanly impossible for them to continue to maintain that high energy for the rest of the period. I was proven wrong.

The next class to come in was a group of first graders. This is where I learned my lesson for the day. This class, much like the kindergarteners, mainly just ran around and played their own little games together. The most common games had to do with zombies and a lot of imagination.

At some point throughout the class, I realized there was a little girl sitting by herself on the bleachers. When I went over to ask her why she wasn’t playing, she told me that she had no one to play with. So that’s when it hit me that instead of letting her be excluded, I took it upon myself to play with her.

The lesson I learned was that it doesn’t matter how old you are compared to someone or how “cool” you are, you can still play a game with them. I can’t even describe how happy I felt when the little girl hugged me and told me that I made her day just by doing something as simple as including her in a game. Small things to you can make a big impact on someone else.

Then we took a break from gym class and ate lunch. After being recognized by some students we had already had in class, I decided to sit with them at lunch. Listening to some of their conversations and actually taking part in the talks reminded me of myself in elementary school and how much I actually missed being a little kid.

The second half of my day was even more fun compared to the first half. The last few classes of the day, we played dodgeball. Again, just the thought of dodgeball made me flashback to little Natalie in elementary school because it was my favorite game to play in gym class.

Surprisingly, fourth, fifth and sixth graders put up quite a fight. I know you’re already wondering, and no I didn’t throw my hardest against the little kids, but I did throw hard enough to get them out. I wasn’t going to hurt them, but I wasn’t going to just let them win either. I can honestly say that even though it got very competitive between teams, everyone remained good sports.

I have never had that much fun in a long time and would honestly call it one of my best days ever. I am extremely thankful to have been able to take a day to be a little kid again. So the next time you get the chance, I strongly suggest you let yourself be a little kid again, you won’t regret it.