embrace

The other day - not this one, the other one - I taught a class of elementary school kids. Toward the end of class, with about 5 minutes left, I was out of stuff to do. In order to burn the last 5 minutes, I had the idea to set up a reading competition between the class. The left side of the room, 6 kids, against the right side of the room, 6 kids. Whichever class read through the 5 page story fastest, paragraph by paragraph, would win.

Upon announcing this proclamation, the left side of the room erupted in protest. They were none too happy with this arrangement. I asked what the problem was. "They are smart," one of them said, pointing to the right side. "We're stupid."

What could I say to that, really? Were they wrong? Well, I wouldn't designate any kid as stupid, but even at the time I realized that perhaps the right side of the class was loaded with better readers. But hey, I had 5 minutes to kill here, so the games must go on.

The right side went first, and read through the story flawlessly in a minute and a half. The left side started out, and started out well. Then, about halfway through it, they abandoned all pretense for speed and began reading the story in goofy voices. Each kid laughed their way through each paragraph in a unique way. They ended up taking well over 2 minutes.

When they finished, I told them that if they had kept trying their hardest they could've won. They all looked at me and kinda shrugged, as if to say, "C'mon, man. They're the smart kids. We were dead to rites."

At the time I was kinda annoyed, but looking back now I admire that attitude. They knew they had no chance, and instead of risking disappointment they took matters into their own hands and just had a couple minutes of fun. In a hyper-competitive culture like Korea, that attitude will serve them well, I think.

Learn to embrace failure.

bread and butter

If this blog has anything resembling a running gag, it's me revealing the various gifts I receive from my employers for holidays such as Chuseok or the Lunar New Year. If this blog has another running gag in addition to that, it's me being self-deprecating and belittling the work I do. This post will have both of those things. My bread and butter.

hangman

Let's get this out of the way early: Hangman is the worst. I remember not even liking it when I was a kid. For one thing, it's practically impossible to lose a game of hangman. And, even if you did, who gives a shit? It's vastly inferior to other classroom games, Seven-Up, for example. Remember Seven-Up? Now that's a game.

moment

It's interesting how things happen. They happen suddenly. There's a second when things change. They go from being this way, to, a moment later, that way. Death is like that. One second a person is here, the next they're not. Birth is the same, just opposite. In a second it starts raining. Water boils and freezes. There's a moment when you fall asleep. The sun rises and sets, days begin and end, all in an incalculably small speck of time. It might feel like these things happen slowly, but they don't. There's always a moment, and then things aren't the same anymore.

yell

I yelled at a class today.

breaks

I don't mind working. But, with any job, it's nice to have a break now and then.

inconsequential

For about ten minutes today, I may have been doing the most inconsequential work a human has ever done on this planet.