A giants life: December 2018

Nearly 2 years in the job and, while I am still learning all the ins & outs, I feel that my feet are under the table, so to speak.
I don't miss the stress of the old job, the chest pains, lack of sleep, you know the sort of thing, but I still want a little more. I have tried to throw myself into this job, extra time there without putting in overtime claims etc. One thing I have done is to start running an after school club. 'Why, on Gods Earth, would you want to do that?' I hear you say. Or maybe you don't say, but I am going to tell you anyway.
Over the last couple of years the small people that populate the school have appeared to get used to me hanging around. On gate duty in the morning they expect a high five, in the hall at lunch they expect a high five, if I am doing a roof inspection they want to know how I got up there ( I flew. Like Superman, not like a bird.) The teachers here impart knowledge to these kids every day of the week, apart from Saturday & Sunday obviously, they influence young people in many ways. It may be that these youngsters never realise how they were influenced, or they may, like me, only realise after many years.
We are all the sum of our learning, our experiences and the people we interact with over the course of our lives, be that our parents, teachers, friends etc. I look back over my life and think of the work ethic my parents instilled, the knowledge that teachers instilled etc. I wish I had paid more attention to some, especially my old latin teacher who turned out to be a highly decorated communications expert during World War 2. In my arrogance, maybe, I would like someone, somewhere, sometime in the future, to look back and remember that a certain site manager once told them something that changed their lives. It probably won't happen as I am trying to teach them that engineering can be fun, that Leonardo Da Vinci didn't just paint the Mona Lisa.

We have built a bridge that uses no fixings, bar gravity and friction, to hold it together. We have built catapults that flung a rolled up pair of socks across the classroom. And we have made paper airplanes. We also watched what happens when engineers get it wrong, search for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge on Youtube...
Maybe one day one of these small humans will have a part to play in the human race expanding from this small blue & green planet. And, maybe, they will think back to the time that I tried to explain the difference between kinetic & potential energy, saying ' One day, when you are sitting in class in your next school, your teacher talking about kinetic & potential energy you will think back to being bored to tears by Mr Giant68'
In the meantime, I repair things, clean things, assist teachers with weird projects, set out chairs for nativity plays and get frustrated by some peoples stupidity.
So, is it arrogance? Probably, but it is all I can offer.