This week I figured out how to shop at Target when you are moving and taking nothing but one suitcase with you (yep I am now only allowed one suitcase and my carry on by my husband…major stress).
In my post a few months ago I talked about wandering around Target and not buying anything because we were selling everything we owned and becoming mobile.
Well, the other day I went to Target and found the answer for the question”what do I shop for when I want to own nothing.” The answer: Shop for other people!
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I went to Target and bought books, learning materials, gifts and more. It was great. I bought a lot and left so excited. I wasn’t shopping for my friends or family I was shopping for the kids at the Pigeon Cay school where I will be teaching. I shopped for learning materials to teach my classes English. I felt amazing! I left with so much excitement and enthusiasm. It was the best Target experience ever.
My daughter-in-law and I have set a goal to build a little library for the students. We want them to have books that are not only available in the classroom but also available for them to check out and take home with them. As a reader and writer books have been one of the most influential things in my life. The exposure to what is out there in the world, the opportunities, the people, the experiences, and knowing other kids or people go through what I was going through was huge for me. I would lay in my bed at night, after the lights were supposed to be out, with a flashlight under the covers, reading for hours. I traveled the world, I met interesting people, I learned things and I dreamed. It was magic. So leaving Target with books and learning material felt to me like giving a gift of possibility to each one of these children. I want to have many options for them to learn so they are excited about learning English.
One of the things on my list is 8 backpacks. Do you remember having your own backpack every year to start the school year? I do. Being the nerd I am I would be so excited and proud of my new backpack. It was a statement about me, an extension of who I was and what I stood for. Was it like that for you? I want these kids to have that same experience, to have their own backpack to go to school and learn and hold their little treasures and pencils and notebooks. So I am on the hunt for backpacks for them since they don’t all have them. I feel so funny going out and shopping for these things when I hate to shop. I struggle with it but in the end the excitement wins and out I go. I come home like a little kid making my husband (because my son has learned to hide when the door opens and my daughter in law is busy with my grandson) look at each little thing I found. Like a kid at Christmas I show him each little silly putty, ruler, book, pair of scissors-as if they were the best thing anyone had ever found. Which I suppose to me they are. He kindly pretends to be excited about my popsicle sticks for sentence building and my laminating sheets because he knows what a difference all of this can make. Then he pats me on the arm, asks me if all of these stickers are really necessary and leaves me to my planning, copying, and laminating.
So might I recommend the next time you go shopping and have to buy something you know you really don’t need, maybe buy something for someone who is in need.