Memory

Tonight as we were sitting down for the special easter program with our students, suddenly a flood of memories from years past, high school and college, slowly materialised in my mind along with a twinge of sadness for the fact that they were now only memories. But I am thankful for those memories.

There is a staccato of rain outside my window as I write. Fortunately for me, we had an extra umbrella at home that sort of worked, so when I was caught this evening, without my umbrella since it was back at school, I was able to slosh my way and arrive for the evening program moderately unsoaked.

The neatest thing was seeing my students there. The intimidating factor to knowing my students were there, in fact all but two were my students in one class or another, is how many students I actually have out of our total count. I believe it is about 1/3 of the student body, and that is quite intimidating when you realise the opportunities you have everyday to make a difference.

But back to the memory theme. I know I shall look back on today as a good memory, especially when I recall the small group of dedicated students who spent over an hour practicing a song for another program, by themselves, with just a sound file on my computer as their accompaniment. They seemed so excited when I emerged from my staff meeting and came face to face with them as they gladly rushed into the room where the piano was to practice some more! I was super impressed.

One thing I learned this week - and that is that God has a plan for us, and contrary to what some believe, it is not more noble, nor is it even reasonable, to force ourselves into a mold we believe we need to fill. For example, when considering what career path to take, I need to discover the gifts God has already given me, and find out how to use those as much as possible. Then, instead of constantly feeling frustrated in a job where I do not have the gift to accomplish it efficiently, I will feel happy and energised doing what I know I was given a gift to do.

This idea came in direct contrast to the idea I was used to where I needed to 'get out of my comfort zone' to do the 'more noble' work, we sometimes like to call certain positions, and teaching can certainly be considered one of those. I do enjoy coming up with ideas for teaching, don't get me wrong, but once I changed my mindset from "I must be happy as a teacher even though I get more tired in this position than in other positions" to "perhaps my gifts lie in another area" - I immediately felt a sense of relief.

Perhaps we are a little too hard on ourselves at times - imagining that we must valiantly fit ourselves to the position we are in, whether it came to us or we came to it. Of course we do not always have a choice, and that is difficult. But when we have a choice, imagine how much happier we will be when we are doing something we truly are good at, even it takes some training to get to that point?

Having said that, I need to go take another personality/career test :) The difference in a job that is difficult to accomplish, may come from just looking at it from a different perspective. Instead of saying, "I must fit this mold" you (I) could say, "I am going to learn what I can, then go find a mold I more naturally fit into."

The object used to bring home this point to me was an AC remote control. The person giving me the advice said, if he used this remote control as a cellphone, it wouldn't do him any good, and it would frustrate him. That made me smile. And tonight  I smiled again when I saw my students who came to the program. I have the best students ever :)