With so much time to think and write, these five things have come to my mind many times since coming to India. So for my last post, let me put out these final five.
1) Do what you have to do.
One day last August, with fall classes starting at UNC in three days and the movers LITERALLY en route to my house, I decided to make a change. I didn't know what kind of change or why, but I knew I needed something different. So I called off the movers and deferred classes until next year. It sounds easy, but it was a really hard decision and I had no certainty my change would work out. Most of my family and friends thought I had lost it, and I was beginning to wonder myself. All I could say was that I knew I was doing what I had to do. And look where I ended up.
2) "Give it some time."
Pati says that to me almost everyday. When I first got here and worried the kids would forever treat me like a leper, she said this. After a day of minimal success in the classroom when I wonder if I am having any impact, she reminds me. My success as a teacher and playmate for my students has all come in its own time. Now their academic and social progression is very obvious. Every new experience or transition may be difficult, bring doubt or make you feel uneasy. Just give it some time.
3) "Happy Journey!"
Instead of "have a nice trip" or "travel safely", Indians wish you a "happy journey". I love this expression for all its meanings. Maybe your journey is a week long trip, maybe your journey is a lifetime. My journey to India has been many things - happy is only the beginning of it. Hearing this phrase never fails to remind me to not only have a happy journey wherever I am traveling, but to make my journey through life a happy one as well.
4) Today is the day you let it go. Your chance will come.
I found this in a fortune cookie once, and kept it. It was lost for at least year, and then found again in the dark corners of my backpack about six weeks ago. With all the new things I am encountering, and so much time to think about it, I could be up all night. I remind myself that the end of each day has unfinished business. Let it go. Tomorrow, your chance will come.
5) Hold fast to what is good.
These words are on a sign in Madras about a block from where I stay - plain, and in black and white. It seems so simple. Whomever you love and care about, whatever drives and inspires you, whatever is good, hold on to it. Hold fast.
That's all folks.
1) Do what you have to do.
One day last August, with fall classes starting at UNC in three days and the movers LITERALLY en route to my house, I decided to make a change. I didn't know what kind of change or why, but I knew I needed something different. So I called off the movers and deferred classes until next year. It sounds easy, but it was a really hard decision and I had no certainty my change would work out. Most of my family and friends thought I had lost it, and I was beginning to wonder myself. All I could say was that I knew I was doing what I had to do. And look where I ended up.
2) "Give it some time."
Pati says that to me almost everyday. When I first got here and worried the kids would forever treat me like a leper, she said this. After a day of minimal success in the classroom when I wonder if I am having any impact, she reminds me. My success as a teacher and playmate for my students has all come in its own time. Now their academic and social progression is very obvious. Every new experience or transition may be difficult, bring doubt or make you feel uneasy. Just give it some time.
3) "Happy Journey!"
Instead of "have a nice trip" or "travel safely", Indians wish you a "happy journey". I love this expression for all its meanings. Maybe your journey is a week long trip, maybe your journey is a lifetime. My journey to India has been many things - happy is only the beginning of it. Hearing this phrase never fails to remind me to not only have a happy journey wherever I am traveling, but to make my journey through life a happy one as well.
4) Today is the day you let it go. Your chance will come.
I found this in a fortune cookie once, and kept it. It was lost for at least year, and then found again in the dark corners of my backpack about six weeks ago. With all the new things I am encountering, and so much time to think about it, I could be up all night. I remind myself that the end of each day has unfinished business. Let it go. Tomorrow, your chance will come.
5) Hold fast to what is good.
These words are on a sign in Madras about a block from where I stay - plain, and in black and white. It seems so simple. Whomever you love and care about, whatever drives and inspires you, whatever is good, hold on to it. Hold fast.
That's all folks.
On behalf of my compatriots, thank you Katherine Barnes a.k.a. akka.. Salute you for thinking of helping poor children in another country, especially at your age - gives people like me a complex. Salute to your parents also.
ReplyDeleteDo come back in Aug. And this time call me when you are in Chennai..
thank you for flying British Airways...without your luggage. - Srini
i really like your blog.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at my blog, and maybe be follower? :)
- www.joannanielsen.blogspot.com