Sleep is essential for good health. Lack of sleep brings about a state of lethargy, the lack of energy and enthusiasm. A lack of energy and enthusiasm can prove detrimental in many situations, especially those involving interactions with children.

On the Friday before Easter, I was facilitating a live animal station at an Easter egg hunt at Meadowside Nature Center in Rockville, Maryland. My only job was to use stuffed animals to test kids on their knowledge of animals that hatch from eggs. This was a very simple premise that seems impossible to screw up, or at least one might think this. That is egregious thinking. On this day, I learned that if the investment in the task is not full, then failure is inevitable.

As the morning dwindled on, my energy went with it. By 12 p.m. I was lethargic. I couldn’t just take a break; I had to continue on with the task. I had faked enthusiasm before, so I was sure I could do it again. When a kid would come by, I’d run through the “Does a turtle hatch from an egg? … That’s right! Good job! You really know your stuff!” without any particular attention to what they were saying. Any kid who came to the station usually got these questions right. Until one little girl came up, very interested and enthusiastic about taking my quiz. “She knows the answers,” my lethargic mind thought. As it turned out, she did not. 

While this failure may seem minor, it goes to show that a knowledge of one’s physical and mental limitations is important to have before doing a job that requires attention to detail. I can’t work on a tired, coffee-driven mind that believes that deer hatch from eggs.