Attempting Ambition

This piece is dedicated to all of my former teachers, my friends who are teachers and those aspiring to be teachers.  I debated for more than a week whether I could actually write a piece on this particular situation that I witnessed. I wasn’t confident that I could capture the shear amount of beauty and love present in this story.   I am still not completely sure I can convey my extremely full heart as I write, but I intend to share this story, because it is something that moved me tremendously.  I was working at the hospital. My patient for the day was a 19 year old female. She overdosed on pain medicine. She was small in size and meek in demeanor. Her name was Lisa. She was quiet, and she was deaf. I wave to her, completely unsure how to communicate with someone who doesn’t hear or speak. I rack my brain for ideas and finally grab a piece of paper…    “Good morning, my name is Liz. I will be sitting with you today.” She smiles and shakes h...

Did you do anything significant today? Today, I went to school, had a job interview and then came home to finish the never ending pile of laundry. Nothing earth shattering, nothing world changing. I didn’t volunteer for anything, I didn’t go out of my way to help someone less fortunate than me, and I didn’t save a life. I would venture to say most of you can relate. We all go through the motions of our daily lives, which are seemingly mundane. We all wish we could do SOMETHING more, SOMETHING meaningful, SOMETHING significant. Did you smile today? If you answered yes, then you did do something significant. Why shouldn’t you or I feeling happy about something, indicate significance? Sure, you didn’t sign up for the twenty dollar monthly donation so that a child in Africa can eat or go to school, but for a brief moment, you were happy with something in your life. A smile costs nothing but can give so much.   It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who gi...