Satisfaction

When my student who won top 3 in our municiple speech contest last Saturday, she ran up to me and hugged me calling "sensei" in pure joy. To be the person whom she wants to share the prize most with... I guess this is the best reward a teacher can get.

Being a teacher often requires us to seek satisfaction in the achievements of our students. Unlike this particular competition, most achievements of our students will not come in tomorrow. It's probably 10 years, 20 years down the road for most of them. We might never know that we are the ones to allow that success of that student either.

I am a very self centered person. Satisfaction comes to me when I achieve something I want, in the way I want it to be achieved. However, to learn to seek satisfaction through the achievements of others may actually be a lesson I should learn... just like a mother who seeks pride in her high achieving son/daughter, maybe satisfaction in life can come in forms more than that of self-achievement. Nevertheless, before I seek satisfaction through the achievements of others, a part of me still wants to create more achievements that I can proudly call my own.