A Reflection

As the day draws to a close, most evenings I find myself slowing down. I'm not generally as alert as I was earlier in the day, and I find myself struggling to focus, particularly in that time right before I head to bed. However, one thing that I do find myself doing with ease, (which could explain the lack of ability to focus on what I'm actually trying to do) is reflecting. That's when I spend my time thinking over what happened in the day, and what happened to me.

Society currently functions in such a manner that we're always pushing ourselves to our limits. It's always about how much you can accomplish, how many activities you can be involved in, and how busy you can be, because that, according to some unwritten law is how one is successful in the world. You're measured by the number of things you can juggle between, even if that means you get super stressed out in the process. It makes you look more impressive when you can be involved in several music activities, be taking some ungodly amount of classes, and still have time to volunteer 5 hours a week. However, when one is this involved, they often lack the time, and atmosphere to do really accurate reflecting on the past hour, day, week, or even month of what has happened to them.

The process of reflection generally involves just thinking things over.  A simple enough task in itself, not really with too many strings attached to it. In order to reflect effectively though, one needs to allow for a proper time interval that can allow one to process things. Processing is important in teaching, because people can memorize letters and numbers and words galore, but if they aren't comprehending what they're doing, then they're going to find it increasingly difficult to remember it when they need to. Reflecting brings out comprehension skills, which in turn strengthen critical thinking skills, which are vital to being a successful member of the workforce today. One of the best ways to confirm that you really know and understand material is to reflect on it, and just sit and ponder it.

On a more personal level, reflecting is not something that I typically leave enough time for. Though I am aware of this, I have not made a concious effort to change it. When I do allow myself the time to reflect, typically it is before I go to bed, or when I'm heading to bed, I will reflect on what happened to me that day. Sometimes I do it through writing, and sometimes I wish I was doing it through writing. I'm aware that writing or typing generally helps me reflect better, but that still does not mean I always do that. Like when I am studying, I reflect well in a calm peaceful environment, with perhaps some calm, classical music playing in the background, with nothing significant to distract me, as I am very easily distracted.

That's enough reflecting on reflection though..

Like it or not?

All my life, from a very young age, I have been absolutely terrible at spelling. Completely dreadful at it. And along with spelling, I've really never been a fan of any of the english classes where we were supposed to read a string of books and then write reports on them. I like reading for fun, and have never really enjoyed being forced to read anything. However, an English teacher (who seems to have been perhaps unfortunate enough to become significant in several of these entries), that I had in high school was so enthusiastic about teaching English. I tried to tell myself that I didn't like her class, and I didn't like what she did, but that would be lying. She really drove me forward and not only improved my English skills, but made me at least tolerate it.

Part of the reason behind her successful teaching of the subject was because she was good at doing things in non-conventional ways. We were always moving around the classroom, either making posters, or sculptures, or presentations. Very rarely in the classroom were we sitting there and listening to someone talk. We had some group discussions, but she was very good at keeping them interesting and insightful. I really appreciated the enthusiasm she brought to class just about every day, even though often the class was early in the morning, or right after lunch, both times when I often find myself nodding off. This made me appreciate the subject more, though I could not honestly say it is one of my favorite subjects.