My grandson is learning to tie his shoes. That’s always one of the major hurdles of childhood as I remember it. I told him that learning to tie my shoes was a big problem for me. As I think back on it, I managed my early years of school okay. Actually, I don’t remember any real obstacles to learning. It’s when I got to college that the big problems arose. Maybe learning to tie my shoes wasn’t such a problem because of me, maybe I didn’t have the best teachers? My grandson has terrific teachers. What a blessing!
Learning lessons like how to tie your shoes is one of the thousands of ways that we all get prepared for the bigger life that awaits us.
When I went off to college, like so many of my own students today, I wasn’t very prepared. Imagine that deer in the headlights image. Of course, I didn’t know how unready I was. When I got there, way back when, my instructors didn’t really know how to help unprepared students to learn. I was on my own in so many ways.
Things have changed a lot since then. As this semester draws to a close, most students were ready to finish , some not, I started thinking about how all of us get prepared life we see coming and so much we never imagine.
How did your Thanksgiving go? That’s always the first test of getting everything sorted, arranged and landed right on time. All to be wolfed down in15 minutes! It’s sort of like a trial run for the big Christmas event(s). Christmas has the added elements of decorating, gifting and multiple events (not just a single feast). Did you learn anything last year to help you better manage this year?
As I’ve aged, there are now people in my circle who have decided to cut way back on all the preparation, tradition and rituals. It looks to me like what they are doing instead is replacing all that time and energy with people focused experiences. Who cares if the Christmas lights get hung or not? Accepting that invitation to catch up and rekindle a relationship seems more significant.
What can you begin to let go of so that you can hang on more tightly to what really matters?
When the semester ends, there are classic “characters” that enter the stage just like in Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. After almost 30 years of semesters, I can recite the lines of this play by heart. Despite all of my warnings, there are always a few who end with a crash and burn. I myself almost did many times when I was their age.
How DID I make it? I don’t remember. My years in college had me focused on so much time consuming activity. Involved in campus ministry organizations, a full time job, president of a service club, then getting engaged – who had time to do any learning?
“Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning… Anyone can start over and make a new ending.” ―
A colleague was on a rant last week, angry about her students who didn’t seem very interested. The same feelings have plagued me. I wondered if it wasn’t a lack of curiosity, but a lack of preparation we were disappointed with? I never said a word in any of my college classes forty years ago. Maybe fearful that I’d be found out – the only one who didn’t belong.
I’ve been trying to figure out all of my own college mistakes so that I can help my own students avoid some of the same problems. Maybe there are universal human problems that transcend time? Do you think some lessons we have to learn on our own, the hard way?
“I have learned all kinds of things from my many mistakes. The one thing I never learn is to stop making them.” ―
Maybe the best way that we learn how to be prepared for living a better life is by learning from the good models all around us. Just like learning to tie our shoes.
How can you help someone in the days ahead get prepared? To truly celebrate? To make that next leap forward? To invest in what matters? To turn loose of something? To take a risk?
I spend a lot of time and energy thinking about getting prepared for my mysterious future. Maybe in that effort, I’m missing out on being prepared for what needs to be done TODAY?
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” ―
The Invisible Man 