A Story About Courage

As told by: Uncle Books

IF COURAGE IS HONEST, WHO ARE YOU WITHOUT SCHOOL, GRADES AND EDUCATION ALIKE? 

During class, my science teacher, Mr Akena, always said, “Feed your head!” I would always faithfully agree and, in the middle of everyone’s silence, courageously add, “and your stomach, too!” The silent majority would always turn their eyes on me in disgust. 

My mother had taught me, from the time my years were but units, that I could learn better at school if only I finished my food at home. So, it was in the interests of a balanced diet, and physical and intellectual growth, and for no other reasons, that I accomplished all the things that I have done. 

In our class, where the silent majority craved scoring above 70% in examinations, I was always the example of a lousy distracted boy who cared less about passing tests. Those around declared I would be an abject failure in the future anyway, talking of me like a cautionary tale. This ‘failure’ they spoke of was a person they knew from the village.   

And what is my future today? If there is any value upon which I smile, then it is my courage. It is not wasting my time regurgitating information to pass exams, and not having the foresight to view my future in the clan of robots, google and SIRI that would drag me into the unemployment line. For the sake of addition and subtraction, multiplication and division in my work, my laptop and phone, which have calculators, seem to be enough. So, you see, nobody can do a robot’s job more than a robot. 

Thankfully, my courage to defy the school spirit has seen me to the merit of this young life, into a creative leader and the system disruption thinker I am today. I was always a disrupter through my musings as a child; they were the nutrients that fed my intellectual growth. The day I challenged Mr. Akena to tell the class the number of dimensions in the twilight zone was the day I glimpsed the trouble that I could be to others. I was dragged into the office and gang punished for teasing the teacher. 

So, teachers and parents, do you really think your children enjoy solving the missing angle in a triangle, or learning about the chemical make-up of a cell when they have no appetite to grow into biologists or chemists? Do they even have the courage to tell you that they don’t like it? Would you have the courage too, to listen and understand them? It is a good thing, I know, to learn about how the physical world works, or even the science regarding the origins of the human species. Convolution or revolution, or perhaps it’s evolution, but how do any of those teach the child to see good in other person’s perspective, or to show compassion to the people around him, strangers included, or to think for themselves and form their own opinions and ideas? 

My mother, listening to our perspectives on her ancient stories around the fire site every evening, always said that imagination is better than knowledge, that listening is better than talking. Thought and accompanying silence is not a void that must be filled with voices and noise; knowledge is that which another person imagined, so imagination would make me a founder of knowledge. She would say that the most important thing in this life was me – not what someone thinks of me, not what someone’s opinion of what best works for me. 

To children, do you have the courage to create your future? We grow up being taught and conditioned to think in certain, limiting ways. We go to school, spend years and much energy learning topics from which most of us take no interest. We write wonderful, sexy job applications showing that we graduated with good grades, even though mostly all it has taken is to remember some facts, dates, names and numbers, and plan for following assessments accordingly; repetition, much like what robots do. But is that knowledge? The information that we remember. Is remembering the same as learning or understanding? Can we apply and use what we remember? Generally, no. Most of us dream about working as adults, where all we do is go to our boring, repetitive roles, earn money, buy consumables and pay taxes. Where is life in that? Do you have the freedom to think on your feet and consider and assess your own desires and ambitions? 

So, find courage and be happy. Listen to yourself to be happy. Happiness is success. Happiness comes from doing what you want to do, because you love doing it. When you are happy, you are creative, you are innovative because you are open to new ideas and knowledge. Creativity is one of the more important leadership skills to attain in life. Do not rob yourself of your future. Think for yourself and do what constructively makes you happy. Be the one who decides what life you should lead and what job you should do. Be courageous. If you are able, do not accept money and enter into a job you hate. Sometimes you have to take considered risks in order to create the future you want, even if it takes a little longer to succeed because if you don’t, others will, and you could be living their dream instead of your own. Your own being a fading ever distant memory you yearn for still, but gave up on back when your years were but in units. 

Be happy. Be courageous!