Assigned Reading: If We All Do Our Part

I was flipping through my daughter’s English reading homework book, Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse and stumbled across this quote: “Everyone gives what he has. The soldier gives strength, the merchant goods, the teacher instruction, the farmer rice, the fisherman fish.”

So often we are inspired by others, through social media, the (positive) news, talking with friends, etc., and we think “I should be doing… that, more, different…” We think less of ourselves and focus on what we’re not doing. When really, we need to be focusing on what we do well and what we contribute to the world.

My adult son gave a talk at a middle school about careers, and one of the kids was being a bit sassy and said, “I don’t need this, I’m going to be a garbage man.”  Wrong thing to say to my son. For the next few minutes the class had a discussion about what qualities are needed to be a good garbage man (person):  math for taxes, time management, good driving skills, patience, map reading, and interpersonal relations.  They even took it farther and talked about the impact of not having garbage people: littered environment, sick animals and people, and unsanitary homes. They discussed moving up to management and needing writing skills for emails and making job assignments.

Two weeks later, a large brown envelope arrived at the house with thank you notes from all the students.  One was a sweet note and signed “the best garbage man ever.”

Whatever you are, whatever you do, whatever you spend your days doing, you have an impact on the world.  If we can help our teens see the same – both now and for their futures we can help them feel more purposeful.  By being in school, they are learning skills that will help them become whatever they want to be.  They may not need to quote Herman Hesse, but they can sure learn the lessons from his writing.