My Favorite Teacher

Warning: Heavy content ahead. I repeat, heavy content ahead. Exercise CAUTION!

Before I begin writing this article, I have a couple of questions for you. Do take a minute to think about them, and answer them, before proceeding with this blog.

Who has been your inspiration?

Who was your best teacher?

Who do you look up to?

The genre of these questions have always perturbed me and left my mind in a state of perplexity. When I was younger, I used to name either my parents or a celebrity or my current favorite teacher, when posed with this class of questions. If I am to make a guess, I am positive you might have followed the same path in answering them. To such questions, my responses have always been ever-changing and ever-evolving, depending on the current trends of my dynamic life.

As I grew older, I gave more thought to these questions and after plenty of speculations and contemplations, I realized the superficiality and shallowness of these questions. To begin with, it is beyond the bounds of possibility to single out one person who has been my inspiration or one individual whom I look up to, or one human being who has been my favorite teacher. The way I am today- the morals which constitute me and the ideals on which I stand- cannot be attributed to one human being.  Who I am is a result of multifarious interactions that have occurred from my first breath. Basically, who I am today, is a result of the butterfly effect that involved the interactions I had in my lifetime.

Another important drawback, amongst the multiple others, is the assumption that the above-mentioned characteristics are always possessed by human beings. Throughout our lifetime we learn innumerable lessons from our manifold interactions with humanity. However, why is it that we keep forgetting that human beings are not the only source of knowledge? There are various other non-human entities that have taught humankind from the dawn of civilization. If this is true, then why has it become a common practice in this era, to always attribute our morals and ideas to human beings? The main rationale for this is the fact that we have failed to discern, identify and assimilate these words of wisdom gifted to us by non-human entities.

This is a result of our evolution as a society. Our society’s foundation has been made on rules. We have grown so accustomed to being taught and being told what to do, that we have failed to acknowledge these priceless lessons that have been staring right at our faces. “Dream big, they say, shoot for the stars. Then they lock us away for 12 years and tell us where to sit, when to pee and what to think.” ~ 13 reasons why. I couldn’t concur more with the above assertion. Think about it. When our entire education system is based on rules, how could you possibly expect students to think outside the box, let alone learn lessons from non-human entities?

The aim of this literary composition is not to debate why we have failed to learn these indispensable lessons.  Rather, the aim is to highlight the paramount importance of learning these multitudinous lessons that are taught to humankind, through timeless interactions. The mountains teach us a lesson in perseverance, trees a lesson in acceptance and non-resistance, birds a lesson in courage, pets a lesson in unconditional love, stars a lesson of inner beauty, oceans a lesson in determination and the list goes on and on and on. In fact, there is a lesson to be learned every second of our journey, only if we are willing to learn.

Mountains, trees, birds, pets, stars, oceans, sky, waves and so on are all tangible non-human entities who convey words of sagacity, but I would fail on my part if I do not mention one last non-human entity whose teachings can reconstruct our entire existence, provided we are willing to learn and heed accordingly.

Yes, I am referring to life itself.  According to Wikipedia, the definition of life is controversial. They resort to a very technical definition with biological phraseology, such as signalling, self-sustenance and so on. To men and women of science, this might make sense, but I would prefer if life is expounded in the following way: Life is the journey of our soul inside our body in this beautiful world, it begins with our genesis and is terminated with our demise (philosophical much?). In simple words, life is a culmination of all our experiences from birth to death.

The word ‘life’ instills divergent feelings in different individuals. To some it may be a radiant feeling, to some a tranquil feeling, to some an exhilarating feeling, to some a vexed feeling, to some a gloomy feeling, and to some a depressing feeling. I would like to believe it’s all up in our heads. The feeling it instills depends on our perception of the word.

Life is never simple and straightforward; it never has been for anybody. It comes with it’s fair share of ups and downs; goods and bads and peaks and valleys. How life turns out depends on us. It depends on how we react to the situation and circumstances. It depends on how we respond to every challenge and hurdle that life has to throw at us. We could either face the challenge eagerly and treat it as an adventure, or we could face the challenge apathetically as a burden. How we face life and the various obstacles it comes with, influences what we have to take back from it. An adventure always leaves us a wiser human being, but a burden always leaves us selfsame. Life has so much to offer, provided we are willing to learn. You can take the horse to the lake, but you can’t force it to drink the water. That is something the horse has to do on it’s on. Similarly, this is something we all have to decide and act on our own. The power now rests in our hands; the power to choose to return with wisdom and knowledge or to return empty-handed.

Therefore, the next time I am challenged with the question ‘Who is your favorite teacher?’, I shall for sure answer, LIFE.