Mind Shift

Sunday July 14^th, 2013

When I got back from the excursion I went for a run. Being cooped up in a van with a bunch of whiny privileged college students was enough to make me want to scream. My legs needed to get moving.

Let me be fair not all of the scholars are like that. But some of them are.

Some of them are so privileged they aren’t even aware of how everything that comes out of their mouth is a complaint drenched with a sense of entitlement. It took all of my willpower not to scream, “Stop whining!” I honestly don’t even acknowledge it anymore.

What did they think rural Africa would be like? And this ain’t nothing. There are several other countries with ThinkImpact programs going on right now where the scholars are in much more rural areas.

Where’s the sense of humor? The realizing that the hiccups are the best part of traveling.

I’m sick of whining. I worked at a daycare for a year and half where I mainly watched 2–years- old. That’s a little more justified than 19 and 20- year- olds. If you have a concern you can voice it to me like an adult. But I will not respond to whining.

It’s funny, my fellow advisor April put it so perfectly, she said, “Confronting their own expectations they had for themselves is hard because they all thought it would be the community experiencing the mind shift when really, it’s them.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. I would said that it’s both. We are mutually learning from each other.

It’s getting to the point in the process where a lot of them are feeling lost and defeated and just want to blame everything on something. If my scholars take anything from this experience I hope it’s that mind shift. In how they view everything. How they expect the world to be and work out perfectly for them. How they expect that there will always be some advisor or teacher there that has all the right answers. But life isn’t like that. This process is definitely not like that. It’s not a formula. It’s trial and error. There are random setbacks and failures and successes just like there are in life. When the wind blows you just gotta bend with it. If not you’ll break. And if you’re fine with laying there and being broken and defeated, then go for it. But I can guarantee that won’t take you very far.