Happy to Help

I was late coming home today. I was helping a student with a paper that's due tonight, and though we had to burn some midnight oil to do so, we managed to complete the draft before the deadline. I'm grateful that I was there to help her tonight and that my help made a difference. Though it meant an hour or so of unpaid overtime, I was happy to help.

I wonder what made tonight different than some other times have been. I wonder why I was happy to help tonight, while I other times, I feel overwhelmed. 

It might have been the time of day. Late afternoon/early evening is a more convenient time to help people than late at night is, and I'm generally less tired then. 

It might have been the novelty. Though I help people with papers every day, each paper is unique. Each one is a new puzzle, not a rote chore. 

Or it might have been that I was doing something that I was good at (or at which I am good, for any purists out there). I have nearly a decade of tutoring experience and more than a decade of getting straight As in every college English class I've ever taken. Writing papers and helping students with theirs aren't very challenging for me.

My willingness and happiness to help may have been for any or all of those reasons, or for a different reason entirely. But whatever the reason, I was happy to help that student tonight, and I'm glad that I was happy to help.