This is Fruitycake. Or Professore Frutta.
I had my first side job yesterday of teaching. And I think I liked it. Ok. I know I liked it. Because persons listened to me. And it’s always nice to be listened to and paid attention to.
It’s even nicer to be understood. And since I was teaching English to the Italian students, they were all ears.
It’s been hard here for the persons in this Italy place sometimes. Because communication isn’t so easy.
And Girl Person usually always feels like a bother. Or self conscious. Like she doesn’t know anything. At all. And things she thought she knew, she doesn’t.
So this experience does make her anxious sometimes. But it also helps her.
Because she gets to channel her inner confidence. It’s in there somewhere. And one of Brickle’s most important jobs was to show her we can all be confident. If we try and try again and keep trying.
I have to take over for Brickle.
And although he taught me I could do this job, he never told me about teaching an English class with my persons. But somehow, we did it. And if we do it again, hopefully, we will be better. That’s all we can do in life, isn’t it? You aren’t always good at something right away. But that doesn’t mean you won’t get better.
The students yesterday were all ears, listening to Professore Fruitycake. They may not have known how hard it was for me. Or that at first, I really didn’t even want to do it. But they gave me a chance. And giving someone else a chance today is my assignment. Someone may not be a good driver and irritate you on the road.
Give them a chance. Give them the grace that maybe they have had a hard day. Let it go.
Someone may not check you out at the grocery store fast enough. Maybe they are new. Give them a chance. Say an encouraging word.
We can sometimes make the biggest difference in someone’s day by listening. And if you have that chance today, be all ears.
–Fruitycake
