"I find that kids have such a bigger sense of wonderment. They have big aspirations and I love seeing those aspirations. In comparison to adults, who have had those aspirations, I find that a lot of us resign ourselves to the idea that “I could have done that, but I didn't.” Whereas I find younger students want to do as much as they can in the time that they're given, and I love that. I love that kids are still hanging on to their aspirations. Even as they’re transitioning into university, they still want to be able to do as much as they can with the time they have. I wish that more adults would apply that same feeling to things that they do in their everyday lives. We always get caught up with our day-to-day jobs, our day-to-day lives, and our personal work life. I feel like there should be a bigger sense of just going forward and seeing how it works out. If it doesn't work out, great, at least you tried it.
In my teaching, I'm definitely still learning. I was thinking, “How am I going to teach so many students at once? Am I good enough to teach that many students? Do I have the confidence to do that?” A lot of that stems from a little bit of imposter syndrome and the fear that I'm not good enough to teach. When I was working in retail as an assistant manager, I was always thinking to myself, “Is this the best that I can do or can I do something more?”
I had a lot of time to think about that while I was working as an assistant manager: “Can I actually do this?” It was hard, but I think the best way to go about addressing your fears and addressing your concerns is to just do it. You'd be surprised at how you can adapt and how you can learn very quickly from just your intents and purposes—throwing yourself into the deep end.
When I was doing my undergraduate and my master's degrees, there were moments, especially during exam periods and upcoming concerts when I would think to myself, “Why am I here?” I feel like there are many people that are so much better than me. “Should I just quit now? Cut my losses?” It was tough. It also stemmed from being an assistant manager. I had never been in a position of management before. Again, I thought to myself, “Has management from higher up chosen the right person?” I have my own way of conducting myself and conducting a store, and I feel like anybody in management is always gonna have a little voice in the back of their mind going: “Did you do that the best that you could? Did you handle that the best that you could have?” I think you always have to believe that what you did was good enough. It's not worth it to dwell on what could have been better."
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