I read a book recently that described the process of evaluating where you're at, where you've been, and where you have yet to grow as this, and after a day long retreat of exactly this I think I completely agree with the term.
The best analogy I can think of is weeding. You see something on the surface that doesn't look quite right--a habit, a relationship, an emotion--and so you begin digging all around it--going through every emotion, every past experience without trying to isolate only what's "relevant" (you can't dig out a weed by digging from only one side if it's of any significant size). Finally, finally after a lot of digging, you come to the point where you can fully unearth it, hold it in your hands, look at it from all sides. You begin to even see the places where the roots touch those of other weeds nearby. It's time-consuming, draining, but immensely satisfying...and absolutely necessary for the real plants to grow.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Life Lessons Learned in East Quad Dining...
Various times over this past semester, I've been enjoying reflecting over all the random but very true lessons I've learned over the past few years working in the dining hall...there is definitely something to learn in every job! Here are a handful of the lessons I've picked up:
1. Don't be scared off by the first impression people give...some of the workers have extremely tough exteriors and will do anything to dissuade you from getting to know them at the outset...but I've realized for many of them it's just a defense mechanism to ward off those who won't make the effort to really get to know them. Most of them are softies inside. I'm grateful too for those that were easy to get to know off the bat. Without them and their encouragement, I don't know that I would've had the mental fortitude to stick around!
2. Every person plays a role...no room for prideful "do it all yourself-ers...you realize this quickly on days where half of the staff doesn't show up and everything falls into chaos. It's only picked back up again when there is a strong leader (see #4) and everyone else steps up to take their part.
3. On a related note...pride comes before fall. Seriously, I can't tell you how many times I thought I could handle the floor by myself, and that was the exact moment followed by dropping the tomatoes and sending them rolling all over the floor (or those nasty mushrooms that stick to the floor!), or someone walking by spilling their cereal and milk, the cheese...or worst, the honey!
4. Everything depends on the leader who's able to train and delegate...a strong shift leader or manager trains and encourages others to do the work and helps them prioritize, the newbies almost always try to do it all themselves and end up not only being constantly distracted by others coming to them looking for direction and not knowing what to do but holding everyone over by an hour because neither they nor the other workers were able to complete the work.
5. Learn to prioritize...If everything's empty, you can't fill it all at once, but you learn to realize which things the dining hall can't do without (salad, cheese, Lucky Charms, guacamole, cucumbers, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, pita...to name a few)--seriously, just try waiting a few minutes before filling any of these and see if you won't get at least 10 requests--and which things people really don't notice the absence of (for instance, you could probably go a full shift without replacing the beets or olives with relatively little fuss). This holds true to life--gotta learn what is worth stressing about and what you can just take care of when you have time.
6. Every conversation doesn't have to be deep...For some, this is a fairly obvious lesson, but for me, someone who sincerely dislikes small talk and would almost always rather jump into the immediate deep questions--What are you passionate about? What motivates you? Where do you see yourself in five years? A year from now?--it has been a good lesson to see how even the small talk that accumulates over months and years of seeing the same people at work (whether co-workers or students in the dorms) can grow into a strong relationship where you have a basis of trust to begin talking about the deeper things.
7. Don't discount the value of prayer...Not only was prayer sometimes the driving motivation that brought me through my shifts on sleep-deprived days or the middle of fasts and helped me to continue to be faithful, I also saw multiple times that people I met in the dining hall and gained a burden to pray for, were people I later saw at church. Although I rarely had the privilege to invite, I had the privilege to pray and see God do His work through others.
3. On a related note...pride comes before fall. Seriously, I can't tell you how many times I thought I could handle the floor by myself, and that was the exact moment followed by dropping the tomatoes and sending them rolling all over the floor (or those nasty mushrooms that stick to the floor!), or someone walking by spilling their cereal and milk, the cheese...or worst, the honey!
4. Everything depends on the leader who's able to train and delegate...a strong shift leader or manager trains and encourages others to do the work and helps them prioritize, the newbies almost always try to do it all themselves and end up not only being constantly distracted by others coming to them looking for direction and not knowing what to do but holding everyone over by an hour because neither they nor the other workers were able to complete the work.
5. Learn to prioritize...If everything's empty, you can't fill it all at once, but you learn to realize which things the dining hall can't do without (salad, cheese, Lucky Charms, guacamole, cucumbers, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, pita...to name a few)--seriously, just try waiting a few minutes before filling any of these and see if you won't get at least 10 requests--and which things people really don't notice the absence of (for instance, you could probably go a full shift without replacing the beets or olives with relatively little fuss). This holds true to life--gotta learn what is worth stressing about and what you can just take care of when you have time.
6. Every conversation doesn't have to be deep...For some, this is a fairly obvious lesson, but for me, someone who sincerely dislikes small talk and would almost always rather jump into the immediate deep questions--What are you passionate about? What motivates you? Where do you see yourself in five years? A year from now?--it has been a good lesson to see how even the small talk that accumulates over months and years of seeing the same people at work (whether co-workers or students in the dorms) can grow into a strong relationship where you have a basis of trust to begin talking about the deeper things.
7. Don't discount the value of prayer...Not only was prayer sometimes the driving motivation that brought me through my shifts on sleep-deprived days or the middle of fasts and helped me to continue to be faithful, I also saw multiple times that people I met in the dining hall and gained a burden to pray for, were people I later saw at church. Although I rarely had the privilege to invite, I had the privilege to pray and see God do His work through others.
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