Sometimes you may feel as if you are not moving along in life fast enough. Yesterday I was talking to a young man about this. He has been trying to finish up his bachelor's degree. It seems that all his friends have graduated college, are working at jobs, living on their own, and maybe even getting married and/or having a family.
This year will be this young man's seventh year in college and he still has twelve credits to complete. It has been a struggle to complete some math classes because of things that he missed in math on the middle school level and also past tendencies of dyslexia (flipping and turning numbers on the page). He said he felt like anytime anyone talked to him, they would ask him about his time in school and why was it taking so long.
He was so discouraged. He didn't take into account that some time was lost because he had to have surgery on his brain due to an injury. This took over a year, between pretests, hospital stays, the surgery, and recovery. During this time, he also found out that he had a weak eye muscle that needed therapy. This took almost a year to correct also. Today there are very little signs that he has gone through all of this. The experience of the surgery alone has changed him in so many positive ways. He is filled with compassion for others, relishes the fact that he can move his arms and legs at will (his arm and leg movement were affected by the surgery). He also had his parents come up along side of him during the hospital stay and it solidified to him that his parents really did care for him. Even though he did not earn credit for these experiences, he is a much better man for it. I am certain that he will obtain his degree and soon school time will just be a distant memory.
So many times we think that learning only takes place in the classroom. Some of the best teachers are our own life experiences. They are rich and enriching. Is he keeping up? You better believe it!
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