“…still I can do something !” - A day at work that I still cherish

 

 

It was a “usual day” at my work. A beautiful December morning, lazy to get up from bed as all I wanted was tuck in the blanket and sleep for hours. But yes, duty calls. With all the baggage, I was trying to rush through my morning activities making to punch at work at sharp 7 am. Well the day just went by uneventfully but little did I know what was coming through. In the middle of the day, I saw a young, vibrant lady walking into my clinic, so confident with a heart warming smile. I could not stop myself from reflecting back that positive energy which she passed on. As I interacted with her, I realized she was a professor in Physics and had few difficulties while walking around the clinic, dictating the notes to students and difficulty in moving around at night. That is when I noticed that she was also using hearing aids. She came to the visual rehabilitation department hoping that she might have chances of getting her vision back. As I continued having a conversation with her, what I realized was that she plays musical instruments and supports students who had poor socio economic background. I could not do much for her visual condition which made me feel bad but the way she reacted to the news was amazing. With a hope in her voice she told me that research would come up with an amazing solution for the condition and she believed in Science. What amazed me even more was the way her students helped her in classes. They would remain silent as soon as she comes into classes, keeps the benches closer to the teacher’s podium and keep the lights on in the classrooms as she has difficulty in walking around classes. On the same note, they would never accompany her in and out of classes or help her identifying the routes to other classrooms as her students very well know that how much their teacher wanted herself to be independent. I was quite surprised the way she never complained about her condition and I could see how much she was supported by her 60 year old Mother who herself was a teacher. When I asked her why she wanted to become a teacher even when she knew about her difficulties, with a broad smile she replied that the best way to teach her students not to give up on their lives was simply showing them how that can be done. I was quite taken aback by her reply as I used to complain about each and everything that went wrong in my life, wasting my time thinking why it went wrong even when I knew that was not going to change anything. But in front of me was a person with confidence and happiness who live her life to the fullest even when she has hundreds of hurdles to jump across. Meeting with her that day gave another perspective to life, making it one of the best days at work. As Helen Keller rightly quoted, “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do”. The question is are you ready to do “something” that you can !