I’ve heard some teachers say that they have students who don’t want to be challenged. I disagree! One of the reasons that students can’t put down video games is because they look forward to moving to a more challenging level of the game. The difference between video games and classrooms is that when it comes to the game, students have the confidence to believe that they can succeed at a more difficult level. Students in classrooms don’t always have that same degree of confidence. In fact, when it comes to challenge, I go straight to the song by Kelly Clarkson that I agree with: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger. It is the challenges in life that show you the stuff of which you are made! One teacher told me that he learned it in these words — No great sailor ever sailed through calm seas!
This is a personal story to illustrate my point. I hear people complain all the time about the challenges of traveling in the U.S. While I admit that traveling can have its drawbacks, try traveling to Cairo, Egypt where you are presenting. You and your husband are leaving Cairo to return to the U.S. when the taxi driver puts you out at the wrong terminal. While you are helping your husband put your bags on the shuttle to change terminals, you inadvertently put your passports down and leave them. Once you realize that they have been left, you rush back to where you were and the passports are gone. You go to the American Embassy and are told that you have to file a police report listing your passports as stolen. Only one person in the police station speaks English, and he is busy. By now your original plane has departed. To make a very long story short, by the time the situation is resolved, it is Saturday night and you are four days late arriving home. But at least you got home!
By the way, our passports were found and taken to Delta since I had the itinerary in the passports. If we had gone on to Delta, they would have been there but we didn’t know that. After this, I worry very little when traveling in the U.S. since there is no experience that even comes close to our Cairo fiasco. I am a stronger person because of the confidence gained while navigating our way through the challenges of international travel!