The Alchemist

Okay first things first, if you haven’t read this book, you should. It’s a short book, and insanely engrossing. I read it in three days while on vacation (for context, my kindle doesn’t usually leave the confines of my backpack when I’m on holiday).  Now that I’ve said that, I’ll get to actually writing this post.

One of the themes in this book is following your dreams, no matter the fear and discomfort it might cause, and especially enjoying the process of reaching those dreams. That has me thinking in a whole new light about my time as a teacher.

For those who might still have doubts about my professional interests, I’ll lay it out explicitly. Teaching has never been on my list. In high school, I didn’t think I could teach because I generally understood concepts the first time they were explained, and therefore I didn’t know how I could possibly explain things a different way. College brought me down a couple notches on the arrogance, but still I didn’t think I’d ever want to teach. But when I got my invitation to Peace Corps, and I was to be a high school science teacher, I was thrilled. I still didn’t want to be a teacher. But I’m so excited about biology and chemistry, and I was given the opportunity to show this awesome world to kids. How could I not be thrilled?

Over the past two years, I’ve faced an array of frustrations in teaching: excessive cheating, low attendance, rowdy students, poor general science background knowledge, and kids that just don’t care about learning, be it chemistry or even Portuguese. And I’ve hated quite a lot of moments of it. I really have. But I’ve also taught some kids (be they my own students or tutoring other students in the school) that give me hope for the future of Mozambique.

I still don’t want to be a teacher, but it’s been an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world. I’m realizing that I can’t just jump to the dream. If it truly is a dream, it takes time, patience and perseverance to get there. Perhaps there will be things I’d rather not do along the way. But it’s whether I view those things as obstacles or opportunities that changes those challenges completely.