I had my physics exam today. In the higher level math and science classes, at the school I attend, you start to see some of the same faces and you start studying together. It becomes almost like a support group to get through the rigorous coursework. It has given me the opportunity to develop more friendships with those I attend school with.
Today as I finished my exam I was briefly talking to one of my classmates I had studied with in a group over the weekend. He had been unfocused and seemed to have little initiative to get ready for the test other than attending the group. He had just had a new baby a few days before that and I concluded that that was why he was distracted. I found out today, that two weeks ago, his father died. The third week of the semester. I was shocked. I knew how hard it was for me to lose my mother just a week and a half before the semester began, but I couldn't imagine trying to deal with all of that grief amongst the immense course load of an engineering major. I was ashamed that I had even thought that he was uncaring toward his work after suffering the same fate through the first month of school the semester before.
This evening I sit and work on my college entrance exams with a friend. English is not his native language, so I help him format his essay and correct any grammar even though his writing is quite moving in itself. Part of his essay explains the tragedy that struck him just the year before, only weeks before I met him. I barely knew him that semester, but when we ended up in a class together in the Fall we got to know each other a little better. I never would have guessed what he was going through those first months I knew him.
The point of this all is to always remember that we never know where another person has come from or what they have been through when their path crosses ours. Don't judge them too harshly, or try not to judge them at all. We are all on different journeys and we must be considerate of others and theirs.
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