The Manny Diaries pt. 6: The Review

As my time with the boys comes to a close (just one more month! *sob*), I decided to have the boys rate me.  I made up a little worksheet for them.  At the top were five stars.  They colored in however many stars they thought I deserved.  After coloring in the stars, there were two questions to answer: 
What do you like most about Philip?
and
What do you not like about Philip?
Here are the results:

The 6-year old gave me five stars, but said I should actually get five billion billion million thousand stars.  What he likes most about me is that I play with him and I do stuff for him.  When I asked him what he doesn't like about me, he said "Nothing!  I just like you and that's it."
For the past almost two years, I spent the majority of my time with the 6-year old.  We became really close buddies.  He loves spending time with me and stresses out when I leave his side.  I have to tell him anytime I need to go to the bathroom, just so he doesn't worry about me.  He's got a huge heart.  I'm going to miss his innocence and unconditional love.

The 14-year old gave me a nine out of five star rating.  He likes that I am responsible, caring, and funny.  He doesn't like that I am leaving to go to college.  This answer caught me off guard.  I was so sure that this kid wouldn't care about my moving away.  He is a teenager, after all.
As I've mentioned in previous posts, the 14-year old really didn't like me when I first started with him and his brothers.  He was a loner, moody, always on his phone or video games.  He would lock his bedroom door so I always had to talk to him through the door.  He told me a couple times how much he hated me.  Twenty months later, he and are like two peas in a pod.  He talks my ear off, tells me jokes, fun facts, Would You Rathers, and creams me in Chess.  He still tells me he hates me, but only in fun.  He always says it with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

The 12-year old's review of me was exactly what I had expected:  pure nonsense.  He gave me a negative fifteen out of five star rating.  His answer to what he likes about me is as follows:
"He's honest.  (Too honest.)  He's OK at being smart.  He can count...uuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmm...He can do the alphabet."
That's exactly what he put, down to the the last 'U'.  Even the parenthetical "Too honest" was all him.
His answer to what he doesn't like about me:
"He wakes me up too much.  He has no tech days.  He has no tech weeks.  He has no tech weeks.  He has no tech weeks.  He STILL has no tech weeks.  He doesn't know what a space cucumber is.  (I don't either.)"
Again, word for word (I made some spelling corrections, though.).
When I told the 12-year old I would be posting this on my blog, his eyes got wide and he said "Make sure they know I'm kidding!"  When I asked him how many stars he would really give me, he told me he would give me five.
The 12-year old and I hit it off right away.  He is a social butterfly who makes friends with nearly everyone he meets.  He and I have a lot of heart to heart conversations in which I give him advice on patience and kindness.  And he listens!  This kid has grown so much since I first met him.  He is more patient, less angry, and more loving.

It's going to be super difficult for me to leave these boys.  I get depressed every time I think about it.  Even though I'll be on the other side of the country, my thoughts and heart will always be with the three young souls I left in Pennsylvania.  My boss/mom and I have already planned to Skype on the 6-year old's birthday.  The older boys each have my phone number to keep in contact.  And I'll be back to visit.  I've even told my mom (jokingly, of course.) that when I do come back to visit, I'll be seeing the boys before I see her and my dad.  I'll be counting down the days.