Life's Challenges

Toyins workshop on Monday was both thought-provoking and enlightening. The notion of challenging ourselves is something that I live by, and believe wholeheartedly to be a large contributor to the character and perseverance of an individual. It is also a key element to success.


As a species, we are inherently inclined to shy away from rational fears and uncomfortable situations. Because of that, we never know what our true potential is in a given situation or environment. It is critical that we continue to challenge ourselves in order for acquisition of knowledge and personal growth to be achieved. It is only when we challenge ourselves that we gain true understanding of our abilities, and the strengths that we possess. “If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?”  - T.S. Eliot


I often have to step back and remind myself of these thoughts throughout the course of this program. As individuals and as a cohort, we have often experienced frustration, disdain, and heartache. Losing a cohort member early on was a clear reminder that the program is strenuous and requires diligence and perseverance to make it to the end. As a group, we have hit what appear to be brick walls at time, and I am reminded of a quote by Randy Pausch from his Last Lecture series; “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”


Challenging ourselves often means questioning the way we think or feel or believe…questioning what we have been taught, questioning what we are still being taught. It requires us to check our biases, and remember that people are the way they are for a reason, and we cannot pass judgment without understanding. I shared on Monday that my father was in the WTC on 9/11. He is alive and well, but for a long time I openly hated Osama Bin Laden, and I let my father know it. One day, Dad sat me down and told me that while what we feel that what Osama did was wrong, we cant pass judgment on who he is. We cannot hate a man for doing something that he believed in. It took me a long time to wrap my head around that. I challenged myself to reflect on what he said, and after a while it made sense. We don’t know where people come from, how they were raised, the lives that they live…and we have to continuously challenge ourselves to work at understanding differences. I realized the change in myself when Sadaams execution was publicized for the world. I watched in horror the old man on the TV with a neuce around his neck, and instead of rejoicing with the rest of the world, I was overwhelmed with the thought that this was someones father, someones, grandfather being murdered on national TV…is this was we stand for? Do I want to be someone who rejoices in that? When Osama was finally caught and killed, and soldiers dumped his body in the ocean, I received a text from my Dad. It was a picture of Americans burning the Afgani flag in NYC. He wrote “It’s amazing the disrespect that hate can bring out of people”. My father challenging me to think outside the box, and then me challenging myself, ironically gave me peace with who people are. This will be true in when I receive my students for the first time as well.


The way my father challenged me is the way I will challenge my students. Understanding and appreciating our differences for what they are is the ultimate form of respect we can give one another. We MUST challenge our students to challenge themselves, so they can in turn, grow to be individuals that question what they see and think critically and divergently. It is not our job to bestow knowledge on students, but rather challenge them to discover it themselves. We cannot handicap our children by making their lives easy.


“It’s supposed to be hard….if it wasn’t hard everyone would do it….it’s the hard that makes it great”

-          Tom Hanks, A League of their Own