Wired for Hope

It's that time of the semester when students start to feel the pressure of school as midterms loom on the horizon. For some, they haven't kept up with the reading assignments or don't understand all of the key concepts of a subject. Some intended to seek out the assistance of the tutors in the Learning Center or lean on each other in study groups to bolster their academic confidence, but they never got around to it. Parents may have been on the receiving end of a frustrated phone call where their son or daughter needed to vent about how stressed out they feel. As parents (my wife especially), we listen attentively, offer a bit of advice (which is largely ignored), and hope they are doing all right. In my own life, I've come to accept that my college-aged children need to call every now and then and vent to someone with whom they can safely share. Even though we know they are venting, it still leaves us worried. I think it's the parents' role. In any event, many students enter this time knowing they are not nearly as prepared as they should be, and they run the risk of spinning themselves down rather than raising themselves up.

Which leads me to my reflection for this entry. I think we are wired with a great capacity for hope, almost an infinite capacity to be people of hope, people who see and seek possibilities. In the most desperate of situations, the human spirit has the capacity for hope. When we do, I think it helps us to be positive, to see possibilities, and to make these possibilities realities. As I am positive, as I focus on assets, I find more assets and more to be positive about. It is not so much that I ignore that which causes worry, doubt, or anxiety; it is just that I don’t let it consume me. By looking at the possibilities, by focusing on the positive and attending to the assets, I believe I am more capable of achieving more than I imagined for myself. In contrast, when I focus on the doubts, I spin myself down into the negative.

We are wired at our very core to be people of hope. So, as our students enter into this time of midterms, I say to them prepare, study hard, but most importantly be people of hope who act on the possibilities.