I don't think they're playing with a full deck of cards if you know what I mean...

     Kids wear me out.  I don't know how elementary school teachers do it.  I started volunteering at a children's shelter a few months ago, and after a few hours with babies and kids I am exhausted.  I have learned that I am no good at homework help, usually I just want to give the kids the answers because it is quicker and easier and then we can get on to more important stuff, like baking a cake or painting our nails.  I do not miss social studies.  Or multiplication tables.  Or science fair projects.  I never could think up good topics for science fairs.  Whenever I remember science fair, I remember this one particular project.  I was in sixth grade.  I have no idea what my project was on, but I remember walking around the gym with all the folding tables set up and looking at everyone else's projects.  One girl had a VCR and TV set up and was playing a video she had made.  Upon closer inspection, her project was titled "Do Cats Always Land on Their Feet?".  I don't know why I remember this so well.  Anyways, she had made a video of herself and/or her brother and their family cat.  They set the camera up and got a ladder and proceeded to film the cat being dropped by them after they had climbed various heights up the ladder.  After every cat drop, the cat would take off like a shot and the camera would be turned off, and then turned on again when they were back on the ladder with the cat, ready to be dropped from a new height.  It was too funny, but the funniest part is that at the time, it seemed like a perfectly legitimate project. Kids brains really do work differently.
   The capacity of the human brain is something I have had to change my opinion about since I started in my line of work.  I used to be of the school of thought "If I can do something, everyone else should be able to as well".  I applied this to education, self-control, common sense, work-ethic, decision making, right vs. wrong, employment, etc. etc.  Of course I have heard of nature vs. nurture and of different parts of the brain developing at different ages, but humans are all fundamentally the same, right?  Not when it comes to brain function.  What I didn't know and couldn't wrap my head around for the longest time is that due to factors, some external, such as the use of street drugs (honestly, telling me you make all your own meth when you are my patient will NOT impress me), or internal, i.e. bad genetics, some people's brains do not function as well as others.  I realized this after watching an episode of  Intervention.  This certain drug-addicted individual had no impulse control and they targeted it back to drug use during this person's early teen years.  The drug use had actually damaged the brain to the point of preventing it from developing and the person literally did NOT have the ability to perform certain tasks.  It was an adult who would physically grow and change but the mind would always be that of a pre-teen.  Apparently this is not uncommon with drug use, and can help explain why drug addicts have such major problems in every aspect of their lives.  And why you cannot reason with them.  This just blew my mind.  I had always thought that with enough hard work, anything is possible, but I really see now for some people it is not...and unfortunately never will be.  This revelation gave me some insight and maybe some more patience when it comes to treating drug seekers and chronic drug abusers, which we see very frequently.  Sometimes, on bad nights, it seems like these people are outnumbering the people with common sense and au natural brains that are homemade-crack and meth free.
   The more I see of the world and learn about people, the more I want to either a) become a hermit b) start my own country c) find a job where I do not work so strongly against Darwin.  Honestly, when I apply for my next job under job history I will put Registered Nurse, Emergency Room and then under description I will put "I combat Darwin's theory of evolution on a nightly basis".  Good grief!