We all must face our challenges that will come. This is our run to tomorrow. Blessings and Merry Christmas, Gar

Turning Point

 

      During my college days, I took a required class in my major that was nearly impossible for me to tackle, and if I could have gotten out of taking it, I would have.  Up to this point in my college career, I had been an average student earning grades far below what I believed was my true academic potential.  The reason for my poor academic performance was due to my inability to read.  My double vision and fast advancing astigmatism prevented me from seeing the way words were printed in the textbooks. 

      I could have asked for help from the instructor, but because I didn’t appear to have a reading problem most of the instructors hadn't believed my appeals.  I felt that I was at a standstill in my educational progress.  I wanted the degree, but faced impossible challenges.  I prayed and asked God to help me, but only felt that I should just keep trying and not give up.  I had wanted a miracle to have the obstacle removed, but nothing had ever happened to do that.

      Consequently, I just continued with my struggle to gain an education.  I was an average student, and that wasn’t too bad.  I could graduate from college, but my grades would not be as good as I was capable of achieving. I didn’t want to fail this required class and consequently lower my grade point average and perhaps flunk out of my major, so I asked a fellow student who had already taken the course to tutor me to comprehend what I had a hard time understanding. I offered to pay him a small amount of money, but he did it for nothing.

      After a couple of weeks into the course, I was earning nearly an above average grade in the course, but then came the dreaded time to compose and submit a term paper.  I knew that I couldn’t write the paper, and my tutor admitted that he didn’t think I could either. He had, however, already finished the course, so he offered to let me read his term paper to use as a template for my own paper.  That sounded good to me, but I wanted to be completely honest with my schoolwork.  I pondered what to do and prayed about my decision to be completely honest. 

      I felt that I should approach the instructor and tell him of my reading disability, of the availability of the term paper, but of my honest intent to do well in the class.  He told me that I could use the tutor's  paper if I copied and memorized the basic facts of his term paper and then write my own without copying his.   In other words, I had to make my research my own rather than merely plagiarize the research of my tutor. 

      That sounded good to me, and I began what may have seemed to another person an impossible task.  I memorized the facts of my tutor’s term paper, word for word, and became totally acquainted with that research. I also memorized the facts of my own paper word for word.  Learning the power of memorization became a a turning point in my academic career. I was determined to do well in this course and nothing was going to stop me. 

      I had learned a system of memorization that was unlike any I had ever known. God had helped me with my efforts by helping me to retain the facts of both papers.  I earned an A in that class. The experience of learning how to study by memorizing the basic facts of what I had to read soon became the standard method I used in approaching all of my college studies.  Subsequently, it was almost too easy for me to earn excellent grades in all of my classes after I learned to study through my new memorization process.

      I am very grateful for the kindness of that particular instructor during my college career.  Due to his keen understanding as an instructor and his faith in my honest intent, I was able to reach a turning point in my education and life.  I also learned that we all can serve others better by reaching down and lifting them up, so they can see how to come to their own turning point.  There is always a way.

Tags: Encouragement Persistence RuntoTomorrow Service Kindness StudyHabits

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