BY: SHEENA BLAKE
Life. It seems we all live it and happen to experience pretty much the same ‘things’ over and over. Have you ever noticed that you continually make the same mistakes? Have you ever noticed the cycles, the habits, the re-occurrences in your life? Have you ever noticed that things seem to be repeated?
I think that I notice only sometimes. I know that this sounds a bit silly…like, how could I only notice sometimes that I am constantly making the same mistakes, looking in the wrong places or flat out doing the same things over and over. But, as I am coming to learn, that is really what life is about.
So, what’s my point? My point is that life is like a university. Each day is like a new class. Each person in your life is like a different professor. Every situation and every person have something important to teach us. However, if you’re anything like I was, I skipped a WHOLE lot of classes and didn’t pay attention to many…many professors…so how did I pass?
Well, I imagine somewhere between realizing that I was ‘paying’ for an education and ‘maturing’ a little bit, I realized that I needed to attend classes and pay homage to my professors. Likewise, as we age in life, many of us realize that being present to the reality of a situation, of a moment is more important than being anywhere else. I believe the elders call this wisdom. I have a lonnnnnnnnng way to go, but it really is amazing to be present (when I remember that this life is about these moments).
But, here is my question, doesn’t part of the wisdom, part of the understanding come from years of skipping class? Isn’t part of the knowing that attending class is important, derived from having slept through the alarm?
I would imagine that there are certainly people that exist who know or knew that they just needed to be present to everything and didn’t really need to be taught or experience the alternative. But, it is not really for them that I write this article. I write this article, today, for the person who happened to ignore or even disrespect their professors and is making the choice to learn from that process. I salute you. I believe that your graduation will be that much sweeter.
Certainly, life is like a box of chocolates…we never know what we’re going to get…but we do know that we will have some classes that we enjoy and that excite and enthrall us. We also know that we will have classes that put us to sleep or anger us. Likewise, we all seem to know, naturally, that some professors are terrible teachers, but we can learn so much from them. I wonder if we were to mix what we know and what we don’t know, would it make us wiser earlier on in life? Would it make us choose to stay in class more…be present to our lives on deeper levels?
Ha! Well, I think me not knowing the answer to these questions is the point. No one really knows, but we are all in the same school learning together.
I think I really like this school…I’m hoping to get a decent grade.
