Have you seen this video yet? If you haven't stop everything and watch it RIGHT NOW!
Are you crying yet?
I want to tell you about a student I had last year, her name was E. At the beginning of the year, she wrote me an email and told me that speaking tests were going to be difficult for her because sometimes she had a hard time talking. Thinking that it was just another student excuse, I wrote her an email back telling her that since this was a language class, she was going to have to do speaking tests, just like everybody else. In hind site, I should have looked at her records, I should have done some research, but we don't always do the right thing the first time, do we?
The week of our first speaking test came, and as I went to grade E's, it was very difficult to understand. I heard gurgling in her voice and there were long pauses in between sentences where a strange sucking noise could be heard. I had to listen, really listen, to make out what she was saying, and in a foreign language, that made it extra difficult.
It was only after I heard this first test that I went to her records and found out that E had Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a disease that slowly eats away at your muscles until you eventually have no control. It is a death sentence from day one. I was stunned, but I was also amazed. I later found out that she has a nurse with her at all times, that the pauses were so that the nurse could suction out her mouth because she had a hard time swallowing on her own, but she turned in every single speaking test all year. She didn't let what she couldn't do put parameters on what she COULD do.
How often do we let what we don't do well define us? How often do we talk about our cankles (that's me) or our poor metabolism, our lack of creativity or our uncoordination and say 'I can't do that because____________'. This video touched me because it reminded me that life is hard. We aren't always delt a winning hand, the ball isn't always in our court, and we are going to be faced with things that are not easy, but isn't it like that for everyone?
Look around you! We are ALL struggling with something, we are ALL failing in some aspect of our lives, but isn't that what this life is all about? My mom, forever the English teacher, always had wonderful literature around. In an effort to motivate my older brother, she once wrote the following on a poster that was placed on his wall for a long time. It is from the book 'The Contender':
"Everybody wants to be a champion. Thats not enough. You have to start by wanting to be a contender, the man coming up, the man who knows there’s a good chance he’ll never get to the top, the man who’s willing to sweat and bleed to get as high as his legs and his brains and his heart will take him. It’s the climbing that makes the man."
It is the climbing that makes all of us who we are! Set goals, work hard, but in the end, it isn't the succeeding that defines us, it is the work involved. Its the action of saying, I am going to do this, or at least die trying! In the end, you may not achieve what you set out to achieve, but you will learn a lot about yourself in the process.
I once set out to run a marathon. In the process I learned that I don't like running distances longer than 13.1 miles. I didn't train like I should have, I didn't climb as fast or as hard or as strong as I wish I would have, and when I crossed the finish line I felt like I had lost. But in the years since I have looked back on that experience and have drawn strength from it. I completed what I set out to do. It was more difficult than I imagined, and there are so many things that I would have done differently, but it has taught me so much about my character and the things I need to work on.
In Ether 12:27 we read:
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.
So go on! Give Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ the opportunity to make weak things strong unto you! Don't let what you can't do decide who you will be.
Besides, 'Cankles' is a terrible nickname.
