Grit

On Christmas Eve, I was sent to a Buddhist temple. I took the train to Yokohama, walked up stone staircases, through a cemetery, across a pond full of koi fish, and into a temple. Here is where I met a monk, who also doubles as a school principal. 

After exchanging greetings, I continued up the stairs and arrived at the school. It was on the top of a hill, overlooking the city. 

Then, I organized the classroom, thought about the classes I was about to teach, and observed the skyline.

I waited until the monk sent his granddaughter for her weekly English lesson. Three other students also joined, a group of four. I spent the next few hours teaching.

I've been doing this sort of work for the last 15 months. Although seemingly peaceful, I would be lying if I said it wasn't a challenge. 

A challenge that has taught me about Grit.

Developing grit is a slow process. It accumulates through years of punches and scars. The more one has, the more one can persevere, no matter the circumstances. 

I think the development of Grit goes something like this. 

Exploration -- Failure and Unfairness -- Learning -- Grit.

For children, grittiness is not really needed at first. We all just start as happy beings, with little responsibility, thinking that the world is our playground to explore. Eventually, we are faced with the reality that life is unfair. We try our best, but end up failing. Over and over again.

Children seem to be most disturbed by failure and unfairness, yet these aspects of life remain constant.

So what do we do next?

We then learn to lean on our grit to get through the struggles. 

As 2020 ends, we are all trying to fight through some sort of struggle. 

We are all finishing the year with more grit than we started with. 

J.S