I took a class in college with one of those professors that's so passionate about what they teach that their energy just infects you. "KMK" is someone I won't ever forget. She opened my eyes,my mind and challenged me to think outside the box, outside of how I had ever seen the world before. Her approach to teaching and the ultimate lessons I learned, literally caused me to see the world in a different way; in a way that I wasn't used to.
The class was called "Intro to Disability Studies". It was the first class of the semester that KMK handed out her syllabus with the fonts printed out in EXTRA LARGE,and then EXTREMELY tiny. Of course I was picked randomly(out of the class of 80)to read the tiny printed syllabus. Confused as hell as to why the print on my syllabus was so tiny..I just plugged through it and read it the best I could, stuttering and all. No one laughed thank goodness(I mean I would hope people would be mature enough not to laugh at the ages of 21 and 22, but ya never know). After reading the tiny printed syllabus and then seeing others struggle through reading the HUGE font syllabus (it was one letter per page...for 60 pages) we all kind of sat there. It was really quiet in the room, EXTREMELY hot AND...we were all shoved into a room that said "legal limit, max 20 people"- there were 80 of us in there...on top of each other. After an awkward silence, we came to find out KMK shoved us in this room and printed the syllabus off to MAKE us feel uncomfortable, to make us feel "disabled" and feel a bit of struggle in a "normal" day. She wanted us to be in the shoes of someone who lives EVERY day with daily struggles and inconveniences because of how society does not cater enough to making life "accessible". Anyways, that STUCK WITH ME...and will forever.
The point of my post today is how we "define life". It was in this class that KMK asked each student to answer a list of questions and then share the answers to the rest of the class. One question stood out to me. "Is life defined by tragedy or miracles?" Well, upon reading this question I automatically thought "miracles" duh, "what negative people would define life by tragedy???...as the semester wore on and I heard more and more classmates answer "Tragedy defines life" I began to change my answer. I realised that without the BAD times we would not be able to appreciate the good times. It's like that old saying "We can't appreciate the sun without experiencing the rain". This could not be truer to life. With some recent "tragic" things happening to some dear friends, it has only caused ME to realise how amazing my life is. How lucky and well off I really am. Of course I have my bad days; my "rainy days", but it is NOTHING I can't get over or move on from. I have also come to realise that no matter what, someone else some where is having a harder time than me.
Now you can take this in one of two ways, a. you can feel lucky and better that someone else some where is having a shitty day compared to you, or b. you can decide to be grateful for all you have and in the meantime make someone else's day a little brighter; smile at a stranger, buy Starbucks for a friend...do something for someone!
Life isn't necessarily DEFINED by tragedy, but what I know for sure is that we need to have good and bad times, we need negativity and positivity in life. It's all about moderation right? We can so easily get caught in our own problems and focuses that we forget about what the person standing next to us...the person on the bus, the person serving us food...or even our best friends are going through. I have learned this lesson EXTRA well in the past few weeks. There are so many people I love who are dealing with way more difficulties than I am. I feel as though I haven't been there enough for these friends and for that I am sorry. I have been too focused on my self and my imminent journey that I have almost not "seen" these people. So my pledge to you all (hopefully you are reading this) is that I will be here for you from now on.
In closing, for any one reading this that IS struggling with some "tragedy" atleat you know...a "sunny day" is on it's way, someone else is struggling MORE than you... and helping another is a great way to feel better automatically. Alright, enough OPRAH session for the day!
Happy FRIDAY TO ALL! I am 24 tomorrow- YIKES( well, someone, somewhere is turning 30 right? or 60..or 80?). I'll take 24 any day!
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