An Observation on Life

Life is an intricate blend of heavenly highs and earthly lows.

Today I hit a low, a small dip. Thank goodness for good friends and family. And kids. Mostly kids who, with a single word or a sweet smile, can bring you up a couple notches back towards heavenly high. I love my kids.

And now that I think about it, I'm glad for these earthly lows. They serve as great reminders to keep us grounded.

For that is important too.

Letter to a Friend

Dear friend,

Today, I was just thinking that we have been friends for nearly half of my life. Although there is a distance of time and space between us, I still consider you among one of my greatest friends.

In many ways, we know each other quite well. We think alike, we enjoy the same things, the same hobbies, same interests, same views on many topics. And yet sometimes I feel as though we don't know each other at all.

I often wish we could be more a part of each other's life. But it seems we have this habit of coming and going...and a bit of reluctance as well. Please know that my mouth may not say it, but I think of you from time to time. Know that I am always wishing the best for you.

Signed,
Your Friend

Equilibrium

Life is polar in nature.

As examples, war or peace, black or white, north or south, good or bad.

We are always asking which is better.

But they are opposites.

Both are extremes.

In the middle is where reality lies; so also lies balance.

It is the wise person who understands this and an even wiser one who succeeds in moving towards one end of the pole versus the other and to what degree, for any given situation.

Balance, if obtained, will fulfill life more than anything else.

Books and Why They Are My Treasures

 

To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.

                                                           ~ Victor Hugo

One of Life's Realizations

Just realized...

You can tell yourself a lie, knowing full well its falseness, and still convince yourself to believe in it. Whole-heartedly.

It is, in fact, harder to lie to others than it is to lie to yourself. Why?

Beautiful night out by the lake...

I recently had a lake shore picnic with my family. We were fortunate enough to catch the sunset, and although all I had with me was my iPhone, these were a couple shots I got.

Sometimes all it takes is a couple hours out by the lake, watching the sun set... for all your worries to melt away.

Absolutely beautiful. Plain and simple.

Bleh... I'm a freakin' work-a-holic... :(

Work overload. I haven't had time to write any new blog posts in awhile....

I realized this month that I'm a work-a-holic. At the start of this 2012 year, I was hired on as a full-time professor for one of the colleges that I've been adjuncting at (yay! because that rarely happens in the field of online college education). However, I am still continuing to work part-time for my other two colleges... I am not willing to let them go. Yet. Until I absolutely have to.

Why do I do this to myself? I work a lot. Every day. On weekends. On vacations. Sometimes through the night.

I need to take the advice of this sticky note:

*sigh* Harder than it sounds. Most of my life has been consumed with either working a lot or studying a lot. I don't know what else to do if not for those things. In fact, I am thinking of going back to attend college for another degree... yes, even as I ponder the fact that I work far too much for my own good and for my own family's good. I understand that pursuing another degree right now may not be the best thing to do. But....

(What's wrong with me?)

Prejudice and Discrimination

I consider myself a fairly open-minded person. It doesn’t matter that much to me what race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, social class, or political party you belong to. I’m not perfectly nonjudgmental though, of course. It’s natural to have some prejudices and biases. I’m just saying that I think it’s only fair to examine each person as an individual, and not assume they are like others in whatever “group” they belong to or identify with. I’ll give you an example.

Once, when I was still teaching high school, the district had all teachers participate in a diversity workshop. One of the activities we did was to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a line in the middle of the room. Then the presenter asked questions and we each had to take a step forward if our answer was “yes” and a step back if our answer was “no.” Since this involved personal information, we each had the option to bow out if we chose to. I decided, “What the heck?” and jumped in line, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with others.

“Are you Caucasian?” the presenter asked. I’m Hmong-American, so my answer was “no.” I took a step back.

“Are you male?” I took another step back.

“As a child, was your family considered middle class or higher?” Nope, we were poor as dirt and lived paycheck to paycheck. Another step back.

“Do you have a college education?” Yes. A step forward, finally.

“Does at least one of your parents have a college education?” Darn, neither of my parents had even a high school degree. Another step back.

The presenter continued in this manner, asking a series of questions related to our background and personal life. At the end of the activity, guess what? I was all the way in the back of the room, the very last person. It meant that out of everyone there, I was the person with the most disadvantages in society. Well, that wasn’t news to me. I had experienced a lot of hurdles in my life, so I didn’t need a workshop activity to tell me just how disadvantaged I was.

But I did understand the purpose of the activity. It was meant to show the varying degrees of differences we had in the room. We were all teachers, all relatively intelligent, all making somewhat of a decent living, and yet there was a wide spectrum of life experiences between all of us.

The students we see daily in our classrooms would be no different. Some of us teachers taught at schools that were better off and were predominantly white—the presumably “preppy” schools. Some of us taught at schools with a high poverty rate and high number of ethnic minorities—the so called “ghetto” schools. At the time of this workshop, I taught English at the “ghetto” school, but would later be transferred to a more “preppy” school.

In my experiences at both kinds of schools, it’s true that no matter where you teach and no matter what the demographics suggest, differences exist. They will always exist. This is true, not just in schools, but in all aspects of life.

Regardless of...

-       your life experiences

-       the race, gender, or other innate qualities you were born with

-       your job

-       the neighborhood you live in

-       the kind of car you drive

-       etc....

...the truth is everybody deserves a chance to fulfill their dreams and goals. We all need to look pass differences and allow each other the chance to find happiness in his or her own life. Sometimes, we need to give each other a helping hand once in awhile too. Where would I be if I were never afforded some great opportunities and never had the help of some great people along the way?