Flying vs. being grounded. It's my choice.
Today in my U.S. History class, my professor was guiding a discussion on the reading that had been assigned for that day. I had only read about 2/3 of it, and of course the largest part of the discussion was based on the 1/3 I hadn't read. So there I am sitting in class having very little understanding of what is happening and I'm nodding off, trying desperately to stay awake. Then the discussion starts to turn and I recognize some thoughts as relating to parts of the reading I had familiarized myself with. My professor asks another question--one I felt like I could maneuver around and give some sort of logical answer.
"Let's get some people who haven't said much."
And so I raise my hand.
Dr. Underwood sees me and lights up at the sight of someone who hasn't said anything yet, raising their hand.
"Yes?"
I share something that I thought was interesting about a part of the reading; it happened to be a different way of looking at a passage. My face is suddenly replaced by a thermometer with it's red measurement increasing by increments. Suddenly, I stumble over my words and Dr. Underwood encourages me with motions of pulling a bucket of words out of my well of a mouth. Zoooop! Up goes the red and I'm burning at 300 degrees. I'm sure the students next to me could feel the heat radiating from my ears and cheeks. I finally get my thought out and say nothing else.
"Interesting. In your good nature you see beauty in this."
Another student then scoffs out a contradiction to my insight and Dr. Underwood runs with that, explaining how things are probably different.
This experience has taught me something that I've slowly been learning all week:
There is so much knowledge, wisdom, and thinking I lack. Critical thinking is a very weak spot in my life. I strongly desire to take the world around me and make something different from it, but that take critical thinking. In order to master a craft enough to manipulate it and create something from it nobody has as of yet, one must first master what the master has mastered using diligence, discipline, desire, and determination.
This semester is going to be hard simply due to the fact I feel like I lack many of those 'd' words. But . . . I can do it. If I utilize my time and resources to the best of my understanding and ability I can, and will, develop the characteristics I really really want to be a part of my personality and life. My schedule is tailored to help me do exactly that.
With Heavenly Father, it will be a successful semester. With the abilities he's given me, it will be a fun semester. With the resources he's given me, it will be a busy semester. With the wings I know he offers me, I will fly this semester to places I never knew existed. :D
"Let's get some people who haven't said much."
And so I raise my hand.
Dr. Underwood sees me and lights up at the sight of someone who hasn't said anything yet, raising their hand.
"Yes?"
I share something that I thought was interesting about a part of the reading; it happened to be a different way of looking at a passage. My face is suddenly replaced by a thermometer with it's red measurement increasing by increments. Suddenly, I stumble over my words and Dr. Underwood encourages me with motions of pulling a bucket of words out of my well of a mouth. Zoooop! Up goes the red and I'm burning at 300 degrees. I'm sure the students next to me could feel the heat radiating from my ears and cheeks. I finally get my thought out and say nothing else.
"Interesting. In your good nature you see beauty in this."
Another student then scoffs out a contradiction to my insight and Dr. Underwood runs with that, explaining how things are probably different.
This experience has taught me something that I've slowly been learning all week:
There is so much knowledge, wisdom, and thinking I lack. Critical thinking is a very weak spot in my life. I strongly desire to take the world around me and make something different from it, but that take critical thinking. In order to master a craft enough to manipulate it and create something from it nobody has as of yet, one must first master what the master has mastered using diligence, discipline, desire, and determination.
This semester is going to be hard simply due to the fact I feel like I lack many of those 'd' words. But . . . I can do it. If I utilize my time and resources to the best of my understanding and ability I can, and will, develop the characteristics I really really want to be a part of my personality and life. My schedule is tailored to help me do exactly that.
With Heavenly Father, it will be a successful semester. With the abilities he's given me, it will be a fun semester. With the resources he's given me, it will be a busy semester. With the wings I know he offers me, I will fly this semester to places I never knew existed. :D
Yes, you can do it!
ReplyDeleteThat feeling of trying your hardest to stay awake but being so sleepy that your eyes just fall shut -- it is one of the worst, yet it happens too often for me.
ReplyDeleteCritical thinking is important. Don't just take everything at face value and don't believe everything that someone else says without studying it out for yourself (even if it is your professor because anyone can be wrong).
Thanks Mommy. :) I may have to call you every other night to get myself under control in order to do it. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one John! It's a problem for me though and I don't like problems so in order to fix it I've done some observations: I've found that for me it's a lot easier to stay awake when I know what's going on and am intrigued by the subject. So if I'm bored I try to initiate something one of my seminary teachers taught me: fake the intrigue until it's real. I get out a piece of paper and write down everything I can about what is being said with a lot of emotion and exaggeration. By the end I'm intrigued and not falling asleep! :)