VACATION AND BEYOND

“And at the end of

the day, your

feet should be dirty,

your hair messy

and your

eyes sparkling”

 Summer vacations were fun during our childhood. Well, what did we do? We used to go and stay with our cousins for two months. During our times there was no difference in how all of us were treated. So, we felt at home everywhere. Even today, when I relive those days, I have a broad smile on my face. I treasure those days. Since there were no gadgets, we played with each other. We learnt to adjust, to adapt, to share, to give and take, to forego, to be patient, to take care of the younger kids, to wait for our turn, and much more. Since there were so many kids, we slept on the floor sometimes.

We were more like siblings, and not cousins. We fought with each other, and then made up. Playing pranks on each other was what we enjoyed a lot. Story time was very engrossing. All of us used to huddle together if it was a ghost story.

Apart from all the fun that we had, we were asked to write multiplication tables every day and read the Radiant Reader English book, write a few pages of handwriting every day. So, there was a dedicated time in the morning for all this.

This helped us to develop good handwriting, reading skill, speaking skill, etc. Our exposure was far less, compared to the opportunity children have these days. But we spent most of our time in the lap of nature.

Summer vacation is a time to develop a hobby, work on your skills and learn something new. Most importantly, I would encourage you to read story books, write book reviews, poems, work on your handwriting, do some interesting craft work, learn to make simple dishes, help your mother in the kitchen, play board games with the family, apart from multiple other things that you can do. Journaling is a great way to express your thoughts and feelings. That is the beginning of the writer in you. Language skills and numeracy skills should be certainly developed. This will definitely give you an edge over others.

Teenagers can volunteer for charity work, get into a sport, take up summer jobs, work on your fitness, enroll yourself for summer camps, learn public speaking, a new language, do some puzzles and brain teasers and enrich your vocabulary. This is a time for you to discover your latent talent and innate potential. Remember to have a goal for the Summer. Tick mark everything that you have achieved. You should have a balance of outdoor and indoor activities.

Vacation is a great time to unwind, relax, learn a new art form, kick start the right routine and habits, develop new skills and take yourself to a new level of accomplishment.  I have only scratched the surface. There are a thousand other ways to enrich yourself. Find out what interests you. Don’t sleep away your Summer vacation. Rather bring life to your day. The end of every vacation should be the beginning of a new competency in you. Stun your friends with your new add on!

 #Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

 

LOVING FIRMNESS

“Kindness,

Which is not balanced

With firmness

May prove to be weakness.”

It was a busy day. And I was on a long call. I knew that someone was trying to reach out to me through the intercom. But I couldn’t attend the call. Some time later, I received a call again, and I was told that two of our students met with a bike accident. The boy who was riding the bike was killed on the spot, and the pillion rider suffered multiple injuries. They were rushed to the government hospital. The body was taken to the mortuary. My heart sank on hearing this. “Oh no,” I screamed. I was dreading this for several years. So many warnings were issued to students and parents that the inevitable will happen if they don’t pay heed to it. A precious life was lost in a moment. Could a greater tragedy befall a family! An untimely demise of a promising youth, who had a great future ahead of him.

It is an irreparable loss for the parents, having lost their only child. The very purpose of their life has been lost. How will they live the rest of their life? Crying out in agony with no solution in sight. We love our children so much that we endorse whatever they do. We cannot say no to them. Children too take advantage of this. They want to do what their friends are doing. Peer pressure is very high. But if every parent can be strict with their children, we can create them as responsible individuals. “Love is not love that pampers and makes them fall in life. Love is love that creates.” There are certain things that we can permit them to do, but there are certain things we should not allow them to do. Just because everybody is doing it, a wrong does not become right.

It is a common sight to see young children riding a powered two-wheeler without a license. Riding is a skill, but an age for license has been fixed because, only at that age there will be some maturity (or so I hope).  For convenience sake, we allow children to go to the grocery shop and vegetable shop in a powered two-wheeler, not realizing that they will desire to roam around in the bike and go out with their friends too. We are unnecessarily sowing the seed for wrong desires in them. If we do not educate them on respecting the law of the country, they will not grow up to be law abiding citizens. Wrong desires entertained could become fatal.

Our love for our children should not make us endorse everything that they do. We have to take the right decisions for them. A knife in the hands of a doctor will save a life. But a knife in the hands of a criminal will be fatal for someone. A minor child riding a powered two-wheeler could be fatal for somebody else on the road as well. What we do for our convenience can one day boomerang on us. We will regret it for the rest of our life. If each and everyone can parent their children with the right values and habits, the world will witness the renaissance of a new society that lives by what is right, and not by what is easy and convenient.

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

 

INDEPENDENT WILL

 

“A strong woman knows she

has strength enough for the journey.

But a woman of strength knows

it is in the journey

where she will become strong.”

NSN school stands as a testimony to the will and determination of a woman whose life was truncated by the cruel hands of fate, by taking away the love of her life.  Shattered, she stood alone, not knowing where to go, whom to trust, from where her future would come. She hardly had any time for healing herself. She had three mouths to feed. A strong woman that she was, she decided to move ahead, whispering, “Thy will shall prevail.”  She did not lament over her fate, nor did she stay stuck to her past. She transcended her pain and decided to rewrite the script of her life. She used her independent will to respond to the situation, to change the direction of her life, by making the right choice. She became a woman entrepreneur. Everything else is history. When life gives us a consequence, are we making the right counter choice?

“Every human-being has four endowments-self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom…” – Stephen Covey

There is a lot of peer pressure amongst youngsters. You want to do everything that others are doing. You feel left out otherwise. There is a gap between the millennials, the Gen Z and the Gen Alpha themselves. The fear of missing out (FOMO) is one of the major reasons why you want to be one in a crowd. You feel that others are living a better life than you, or you are missing out on something important.  You don’t want to be left behind. So, you indulge in everything without asking the question, “Am I right or not?” You are caught in a vicious cycle of committing mistakes repeatedly and remain as followers in life. If only you had the courage to walk alone and be right, you would not be at the mercy of the world.

Those who took the responsibility of their life in their hands, went on to become leaders, clearly stating that you need not be at the mercy of anyone. They made use of their independent will and created their own destiny.

The power to choose, to respond and to change, I think, are the most powerful tools we are endowed with. Are you choosing the right friends or the right habits? Are you refraining from indulging in what is wrong? Are you reacting or responding to a situation? You have been endowed with an independent will to carve out your path. The choices and counter choices you make will define the journey of your life.

You have the power to transcend and transform. So, wherever you are today is the result and effect of the choices you executed. I am mindfully making my choices. What about you?

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE

 

Like a drop of dew

In the early morn

That brings to life

The withered leaf

She wakes up

To a new morn

And brings along

freshness to the day

 

She is the heart and soul

Of every family

She bathes them in love

Beats them all in kindness

Loving and caring

She keeps the fire burning

Determined and relentless.

Strong and selfless

 

She is a paradox

She is soft, yet she is strong

She is kind, yet she is firm

She is simple, yet she has class

She is friendly, yet she is guarded

She is charming, yet she is resolute

She is a Woman of Substance

She is the woman of today!

 

Subservient when needed

Assertive when pushed

She excels in everything

That she chooses to do

She never gives up

In the face of adversity

She faces all challenges

With grit and determination

 

A loving mother

She dotes on her child

She gives herself completely

To the love of her life

Never selfish for a moment

Her needs come last

She is ready to serve

Never waits to be served.

 

She always wears a smile

Even if life taunts her

Never once complaints

But takes it in her stride

She is strong

She is determined

She is versatile

She rules the world.

 

HAPPY WOMEN’S DAY!!!

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting