Take the Good and Bad and Make the Best of It

Title courtesy of The Republic Tigers.

I had a really good morning! Then I had sort of a lousy afternoon. But it's okay! It's funny how life plays out. But lemme start from the beginning.

I volunteered for 2 hours at the high school today, and I worked with one girl who usually doesn't want help from anybody. We worked pretty well together, and she wasn't rejecting my being there at all. Next I worked with a boy who really doesn't like reading, and his assignment was to read to me. Long story short, we got to talking about my bio-anth class, and he said that evolution isn't real. Then he asked if I was Christian. I told him I was Jewish, and he was really surprised! He started asking me questions about my family and if both my parents were Jewish. At one point he asked why I was Jewish in the first place. It was a little awkward because I could hardly understand him, and it was a bit concerning because I wasn't sure if he started to hate me because I'm taking a class about evolution and I'm Jewish. But we talked. We actually had a conversation, and that was impressive. He might hate me now, but, heck, it was worth it. While he was reading to me, the girl I worked with first came over and asked for help. She actually ASKED for help. This is the girl who doesn't ask for help. And if she does, she'll ask the teacher. This was probably the most impressive part of the day.

Then I went to my clarinet lesson and couldn't play a simple to scale to save my life. I kept thinking, "I just want to be done with this." I didn't hate myself for not being able to play well like usual. I knew that I'm pretty mediocre at the clarinet, and that's fine, because I'm going to be a good (hopefully better than good) teacher, and I'm making impressive strides with the students I'm working with now.

Reflecting on my previous blog, I think another reason why I'm not as stressed is that I've stopped caring so much about being great at things I know I'm not good at, and I'm concentrating on what I AM good at, and I'm doing well.

--Elie