Oh no, it can’t possibly be time to wake up already, I feel like I just fell asleep.

I desperately search for my cell phone in the covers so I can stop the sound. I take a breath, rub my eyes, and begrudgingly fumble out of my comfy bed. I spend my shower giving myself a pep talk. Today I will accomplish great things. Today I will remain positive. Today I will….

BAM BAM, BAM…

“Moooooooooom, Charlie took the toothpaste and won’t give it back to me”.

Well there goes that…

Coffee, coffee, coffee…. thank goodness for coffee. Grab my laptop, remind my children to grab all the “things” they need for the day and watch in amazement as if a lightbulb just went off in their head at the thought of needing something like shoes to leave the house. Now we are finally heading out to tackle a crazy day full of teaching classes, crunching numbers, evaluation data, and…

…oops, back in the house to grab my phone.

What did we do before these devices that are practically growing on the palms of our hands these days?

As we pull into my daughter’s school, she tells me in a panic she forgot her gym clothes. No, sorry, I am NOT driving all the way back home to get your gym clothes. Your failure to plan does not equate to an emergency for me… (who said that originally anyway, it’s genius…)

After an eye roll and a door slam, and a window roll down so I can shout out “I love you” and completely mortify my child, the last of the kids are now shuffled off to a tough day of learning.

I pull into my first school of the day… well the first one I’m going into to teach at anyway. And I realize I don’t remember a single second of the car ride there after I dropped the kids off.

More coffee…

I gather all my materials, hang my badge around my neck, and head for the door. Within minutes I’m checked in, set up, and I’m on.

The kids are all happy to see me, and a couple run up to give me a hug. They can’t wait to tell me they remember what we talked about last week. They all have their hands up to volunteer to help pass out materials. Every single one of them wants to share a story with me about what we will be talking about today.

We go through the lesson, and they are excited. They are asking questions and like the activities. When I give them the last few minutes warning to finish up what we are working on, I hear the “oh man, already, that was the fastest hour ever.” Yes… yes it was… for both of us.

See time is precious. I appreciate the time that the schools, the teachers, give me. I know exactly how many minutes I have to arm these kids with as much truth as I can pump into them in effort to help arm them and prepare them to fight against that first time someone offers them alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs. Hopefully exactly enough minutes to give them the confidence to carry out the plan we carefully crafted together to say no.

I’m a mom, I’m a wife, I’m an employee, but when I’m there in class with these kids, they get all of me.

You see, I care about these kids, your kids. I want them to be the best people they can possibly be.

I want to give them every shred of knowledge I can that will help them reach the amazing goals and dreams they already have without drugs getting in the way. I feel like if in the last six years of doing this, if I have helped even one child stay away from alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs so they can focus on enjoying childhood…every single second was worth a million. I love my job.

Thank you for supporting us, so we can keep supporting them.

Jen Bernardi, Prevention Coordinator, Drug Free Charlotte County