Thrive

The reason I created this particular blog post, was to acknowledge something that I had swept under the carpet from the time I reached high school; I feel it is necessary to bring up right now. When I was in year six, I had probably the best teacher I encountered in my entire academic history. At the end of year six, my teacher was leaving our primary school to go to another. She took each student aside, thanked them for the opportunity to teach us, and asked us what we wanted to do when we grew up - a novel question I know. I had only one influence at that point who wasn't a family member, and because of that, I modelled my choices on her choice. I proudly exclaimed that I would like to be a teacher, so I could be as inspiring as her. Her response both delighted and confused me. 'I could be anything I wanted, I could be better than a teacher!'

During year six, I participated in the school choir and developed an intense understanding of music. Not so much how to read sheet music, or what each note meant, but the understanding that my teacher had a beautiful singing voice, and she used that voice to help young children find their way. She used it to inspire us to set goals, and to prove that with teamwork, we could all have our own little victories.

One event I will never forget about that year was when the teacher placed me into a group with four other year seven boys, and got us to work on a project about our home city - Adelaide. Our group was investigating Colonel William Light's vision - straight from the moment he stood out above Montefiore Hll, pointed down and said "that is where we will build the new city" - to a comparison of how the layout of the city had changed by 2001. We considered the way Light was prophetic, as well as resourceful, in designing a city that would allow proper circulation of clean fresh air, and incorporate five major market squares to augment trade of local produce.

If you read his brief journal, there is a standout quote by Light: 'The reasons that led me to fix Adelaide where it is I do not expect to be generally understood or calmly judged of at present. My enemies however, by disputing their validity in every particular, have done me the good service of fixing the whole of the responsibility upon me. I am perfectly willing to bear it, and I leave it to posterity and not to them, to decide whether I am entitled to praise or to blame.'

This is the mark of a man who had vision, who acted upon it, and who was willing to admit that he had neither failed nor succeeded, but that it was up to the future generations to decide. The great thing about this sort of attitude, is that even if future generations had decided Light's design was wrong, or that he had built the city in the wrong place, he wouldn't be alive to hear it! He had lived his life, fulfilled his role, and he was proud of his accomplishments. He had to battle Governor Hindmarsh and many others who disagreed with his decisions, but ultimately they left the choice up to him. Light will be forever known for his judgements, and his attitude towards his life. This topic of attitude and the influence it can have on us is gained from reading a Charles R. Swindoll quote on http://modesty.blogspot.com/2008/07/attitude.html. "I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it".

When I reached high school, I wasn't with any of my best friends from primary school, I wasn't surrounded with teachers who adored me, and I wasn't sure where I was going to go in life. I completed all my assignments the minute they were set, I listened intently during every lesson, and I made many new friends.

When I graduated, I knew that I should go to uni, because that is what I deserved for all my hard work. I enrolled into a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology. I am (waiting for semester 2 results to make sure I passed these current topics) going to embark on my final year of study, with about as much direction as I began the degree. I feel like I should change, and deep down the memory that I wanted to be a teacher is being toyed at with the idea that I could be better than that!

I struggle with the idea that a teaching career isn't fulfilling or inspiring in some people's eyes, and I don't think that just because I graduate with a degree in science (which lets face it means I know how to use a laboratory and write up a scientific report) that I will instantly be a better person, or deserve to have a higher status than a teacher. It is for those reasons that I cannot decide whether to apply for internal transfer into a Bachelor of Education/Bachelor of Science, or whether to see this through. Today when I was listening to "Thrive" off of the new Switchfoot album "Vice Verses", I related a lyric to this situation - "Feel like I travel but I never arrive, I want to thrive not just survive". I don't want to change my degree and then feel like the marine biology degree was just another thing that I could not see to completion. I don't want to just get a career, make some money, have the perfect husband/family/home one day, and then die. I want my life to thrive and for me to be proud of my decisions - much like Colonel William Light could.

I have always been a high striver, and hence a high achiever, but my year six teacher inspired my future. She meant well when she told me I could be better, and I had written off the idea of teaching as a career since then because of it, but only now do I understand why. I want to make the world a better place, I want to inspire and change people's lives, and part of me believes that I need to be anywhere but here to be able to do that, whilst part of me understands that I can be the sort of motivator that my year six teacher was. She gave me the strength to question my choices, and the encouragement to make the most of my abilities. I have so many events in my memory that took place that year, and I will get to each one in my own time. For now, I'd just like to say thank you to that special individual.