The most important thing that you can be as an educator? Yourself. Kids can feel authenticity from a mile away. Your joy is their joy. Your curiosity is their wonder. Your ability to be who you are? It’s their courage to be themselves. It sounds easy. It sounds like something that’s a given. The best compliment a kid ever gave me was, “Thanks for showing me it’s okay to be weird.” I remember smiling, thinking, did she just call me weird? Yep. She did. And I realized, that might just be the best thing I can be… because it’s genuine.