SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS

THEY DON'T TEACH THIS IN THE CLASSROOM

LOOKING BACK….LESSONS LEARNED

Well people, you never know how much you have accumulated till you have to move after being at a place for five years. Yep, this week is moving week...., Schulich's program starts on the 26th of April. I am very excited and can't wait to get at the books. My wonderful family and friends have been so supportive of the new career direction. I feel very blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. With the time I have left, I have been looking back over the last few years trying to unwrap lessons learned. Four are most prominent in my mind. First, i have learnt to always believe in myself, my vision of my future and whatever plans i make to get there. Believing in myself gave me the inner validation i needed to keep working at it. i was absolutely obstinate about this no matter what was happening around me. Keeping my focus was absoloutely essential to attaining my goal. When I shared that I wanted to go into business you have no idea how many people tried to discourage a social science major from pursuing further learning in business.

Secondly, i have learnt to be determined, no matter how many times i failed, i kept trying till i got the results i was looking for. Our education system is so punitive in the way it is so entirely focused on getting an ‘A’ rather than encouraging students to be curious and explorative in their learning development. Trying something different the first couple of times might lead to a failure but when you keep trying, you will pick it up, that is the power of the human brain and not many people are able to know this important lesson. So set your mind to being obstinate about what you want to accomplish.

Thirdly, whenever i set out to do something i have come to expect opposition, in myself, my environment and wherever else it comes from. Opposition is normal no matter what you want to do and if you have none maybe what you want to do is not challenging enough. Even in the physical whenever an object tries to take off above ground, it has to overcome gravity. In my previous posting I think I shared one of those days when I was fighting myself to finish my advanced functions course. Nothing worthwhile comes easy even when we are gifted we have to have overcome the pain of discipline to excel.

Lastly, i am learning to understand the lessons that life is teaching me. i now make a habit to create some time to think about what is going on in my life and my response to whatever is going on. For me the challenge was not only finding a career path that was more in line with what I believe is my purpose but also being able to hold my own in the work place. Kids must learn how to hold their territory on the playground and when you go to work it is the same thing. There are adult bullies in the work place who will try to subordinate you and bully you so many things that could make your work life miserable. As an adult woman or man, you need to learn to hold your own ground or territory and not allow other people to belittle so they can feel better about themselves. Being the youngest worker in my work place was quite a challenge, but as Timothy was told by Paul in the bible, let no one use your tender years against you. These things are not taught in the classroom and I am glad I had time to learn them these last few years.