You could divide into two groups the things that you do. One the things that you love to do and two, those things you have to do. You probably don’t love putting the bins out but it has to be done.
At this time of year everyone at school gets a new start. New uniform, maybe new shoes, new books, new teachers. You’d hope that enthusiasm would be at peak level. Remember being the one with the hand in the air aching to be chosen to say the answer? Those classes that we loved simply flew by while the ones we didn’t ground on forever.
And that’s the challenge – inevitably we can’t like everything even if, like Mary Poppins we find the element of fun. A few weeks down the road all those intentions of the first day of term have altered like 80% of those people who join a gym after Christmas and leave within 5 months.
The challenge is to keep going and that is hard work especially when our lives are so busy. That’s where a good teacher will come into your story. They show you how to keep at it. I had a great geography teacher. He was known for his terrible jokes but he also knew how to talk to us. He was on our side and somehow got us to stick with his subject. More than that over time he made you love his subject – he changed your point of view towards it. He did that with his humour but also his enthusiasm.
I’m fascinated by that thing in us that keeps us going. For instance, say the challenge is to run round your local park and you mustn’t stop till you get back to the starting point. All of us would reach a point where we think, “That’s it, I need to stop.” You are puffing and blowing and you begin thinking that there is no point in running all the way – just a little break and you’ll carry on, it wouldn’t do any harm would it? It’s that moment of giving up or not that makes a difference to how you are. They used to call it a character forming moments.
The people who succeed are usually those people who were able to keep going when their head was telling them to stop. They got past that moment and realised it was about mind over matter,” I’m going to do this!” And the payoff is that you really achieved something you had to work at.
It’s a new term. Good luck at whatever you do. I hope you meet people who push you and I hope you challenge yourself to become more than you thought you could be. And this applies to students and to teachers.
We are very much looking forward to the new term at our Award-Winning performing arts schools, teaching young people skills in dancing, acting and singing. If you would like to find out more about our weekend stage schools or your child has shown an interest in attending drama, dance and singing lessons then visit our website www.theatretrain.co.uk to book a taster session.
