Try and Grow

Good morning, everyone. Today is our first day back after exams. How are you feeling? Some of us may be feeling happy, some nervous, and some a little worried, and that’s okay. In times like this, it would be another opportunity for us to reflect on the theme of this month’s sharing — Acceptance and Hope.

As an English teacher, of course, I should begin with definitions. We have learnt that acceptance is to be true and honest to ourselves about where we are. It also means learning to go with the things we cannot change. For example, once an exam is over, we cannot change the answers we wrote. So, acceptance helps us stop ruminating and thinking about what we could have done differently. However, we don’t always get a result that we are happy with. Then, the story in our mind might go this way, “I’m bad at this subject.” And as time goes by, that turns into, “Why bother trying again? I have no hope anyway.” Have you ever had thoughts like this?

A lot of the times, without realising it, we use these words as an excuse, not because we truly cannot improve, but because we are afraid of trying and failing again. And this is where we see the fine line between something we truly cannot change, and something that we do not want to change because it is difficult or scary to deal with. The truth is, we only know we cannot change something after we have tried, usually a lot of times. If we never try, then it is not really acceptance, it is giving up too early.
Now that we stand in this fine line between “I cannot change this” and “I don’t want to try again”, there is something very important for us to remember: we do not start doing something only when we feel hopeful. Hope does not suddenly appear one day to give us the chance and motivation to try. If we wait until we feel confident, we may never take the first step. Very often, hope grows during the process of trying. When we take the initiative to recognise where we are, when we keep practising, when we actively ask for help, that’s when we can figure out step-by-step how to improve and where we want to reach. Think about growing a plant. When we plant a seed, all we know is that it might grow, but no one can guarantee that it for sure will bloom beautifully one day. But when we stop believing our flower can grow, we stop watering it, we stop taking good care of it. And in the end, the seed dies. But what happens if we choose to hold on to hope? We water the plant. We give it sunlight. We take care of it every day. Sometimes flowers bloom beautifully. Sometimes they don’t, and we accept that, because it is something we cannot change. But what truly matters is we tried, and next time, we try to grow even better flowers.

Each one of us is a seed that might grow. But we must be the one taking the first step to nurture ourselves. We accept and recognise that we all have different potentials, and we are honest about where we are. And as we grind each day, we can find hope that reminds us we can one day reach our goals. When acceptance guides our hearts and hope guides our actions, we give ourselves the chance to grow into who we want to be.
Remember if you ever feel frustrated, you are never alone. And when you are ever tempted to lose hope in yourself, you can choose to count on people who believe in you. Your family, your friends, your teachers, and God, we all have hope for you. Now, let’s lean on God together to quiet our hearts and ask him to help us accept where we are and give us hope to keep growing.

Ms Chan KYK