Jakes

That's what I call him.

When he introduced himself to me, he said his name was Jacob but people call him Jake for short. I asked if I could too, he said sure.

I think Jake is great! He is full of life. He is full of energy. He is almost always smiling and almost always .... up to something.

How I met Jake:
The classroom I had at school was at the end of the hallway. My classroom door I kept open. From time to time, I would heard a loud slapping of shoes against the floor that echoed in the empty hall. I continued on with work but after days of hearing the same pattern, I began to gaze up at the clock and log the time of day.

Yep, that sound was timely.
Hmmm I thought

I couldn't see the hall from my chair so I poised myself in the doorway about the time of the shoe slapping arrival, and waited.

Here he came, down the hall, not looking up once to view my presence. He was too in tune with the noise his shoes were making. Right when he got to my doorway I said, "hello Jake."

With the cutest grin you can find on any little child, he looked up without missing a shoe slap, and said, "hello Mrs. Dieballs." He put his head back down not to miss too much of his self made entertainment and continued on his oh so merry way.

Hmmm

At recess I stopped him and asked him if he knew my name.

"Yes," he said.

"I know your name is Jacob and you like to be called Jake, right?"

"Yes."

"And you do know my name is Mrs. Dieball?"

"Yes."

"OK, just checking."

....and so it was, I heard the shoe slapping noise in the hall and felt intrigued and wondered why this fascination. I stood in the hallway this time, making my presence more known. Jake gets right to where I am standing and without his eyes leaving the motion of his shoes says, "hi Mrs. Dieballs." I returned a hello and a broad smile that he didn't see.

The short of that long story is, three years later and we still greet each other with hellos and the use of our names....Mrs. Dieballs and Jakes. I had to join in somehow. He was having way too much fun to not invite myself in. I can't say that I do any shoe slapping in the hallway but I have found by knowing Jakes I received some of his energy and love of life. At this age, to Jakes, it all seems so simple and maybe life is simple. Maybe it is as we age or in the way we view life that makes it all seem so complicated.