A beginning with a hiccup

My nephew, Nashman, wrote to me from Houston, Texas about his experiences of the first few weeks in high school.

"I have never faced adversity quite like what I am facing at the moment. I breezed through all my previous years of schooling by giving minimum effort, while getting the best results. I have never studied a day in my life until now. High school is a whole different beast. I have studied more in the last eight weeks than I have in my whole life. The atmosphere is alien to what I have ever experienced.  Everyone is so free here but at the same time it's stressful almost to the point where the stress feels tangible. Everything is so strange now; the sudden increase of effort I put into school is pretty astounding judging by the fact that not one drop of effort was put into my middle school years. My school is bustling with things to do; such as different classes, clubs or sports. It's quite overwhelming if you think about it only because I have never dreamt of so many things to do."

Although Nashman has mentioned that he has never studied a day until now, who do you think should be credited for his outstanding achievements in the past? Definitely his teachers from Grade 1 to Grade 8 taught him well. They taught with so much clarity and precision that Nashman needed the minimum effort to score "A" in every subject. He needed no private tutors. He kept on achieving, only with his parents' monitoring on a regular basis. This young boy used all his waking hours wisely since his early childhood and has always been on top of world affairs, not limiting himself to school activities only. He can have a healthy discussion on any subject under the sun without shivering, shaking or sweating.

He is, maybe, a slightly overwhelmed 14 year old at this moment of time, but soon this feeling will pass. For someone who has always been in the "Honour Roll" and has been included in the "President's Education Awards Program" by Barack Obama for Outstanding Academic Excellence on May 24, 2012 this is only a slight hiccup.

"Trust yourself. Create the kind of life you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into the flames of achievement". (Foster C. McClellan) Your Khalamoni thinks so too.