I have a dream

I have a dream

I am not a superhero with some extra-ordinary power to change this world for better but I do believe I am a hero who can transform lives, lives of those kids, I have been fortunate to work with. We always need a purpose in life, a purpose to keep us going, a purpose that drives us and a purpose which adds a meaning to everything we have been doing. So what is the purpose in my life? The purpose is to touch the lives of 110 kids; I have been working with and guide them towards a hopeful future. The purpose is quite clear but the roads to reach the destined hope isn’t that clear and probably very daunting and it often makes me doubt myself whether I have that power to transform the lives. I fear ,what if I fail and what if I can’t  drive the kids to hopeful future, what if  I give my  everything  and end up just messing around with their productive years? But I do believe this fear will keep me working hard, keep me pushing to my limits and more importantly keep me grounded and focused to dream of transforming lives, a dream of seeing every kid coming to the program living a better present and  leading a better lives in the future with  hope and opportunities.

Transforming lives is never an easy job. No matter how fancy it sounds, when we say transforming lives, it is one of the toughest jobs or the toughest phenomenon in the world. It takes a lot and depends in lots of factors to transform lives of kids. Even the slight change in character and behaviors of kids is hard and I am talking about the transformation of lives.  I have read somewhere, ‘CHANGE’ is universal and continuous thing, the world is continuously evolving and everything around us is changing. If we remove the letters ‘C’ and ‘E’ from the word ‘CHANGE’ then it becomes ‘HANG’. We know what does hang means, hang means to suspend or not working. The ‘C’ in the word stands for ‘Commitment’ and ‘E’ stands for ‘Effort’. So for any kind of change, even the smallest of kind, there should be continuous effort  and a continuous commitment for the change. I strongly believe in this theory and always keep my efforts to fullest with continuous commitment towards everything I do for the change, but somewhere it seems ,it is not working  when I see , kids are still behaviorally difficult, are not interested in learning ,are irregular  and most importantly parents not  understanding  and valuing the work we have been doing with kids and how that will benefit them in the present and in the future. But I still believe change is possible and all I have to do is find that right kind of efforts I should be putting on with continuous commitment towards it.  Once I find the right efforts, my dream of changing the lives or say transforming the lives of kids won’t be that daunting and I strongly believe dreams do come true.

I have a dream of changing lives, transforming the difficult present to better present and future with full of new hopes and opportunities  for every kid , I have been working with.  I know it is going to be tough, tougher than anything I have come across till date and I know it’s going to test all my limits starting from my commitment ,dedication, patience ,knowledge ,skills and will power. There are many opportunities and even more challenges on the course towards the dream. The biggest opportunity of course would be to change the lives of kids itself; there is no other better feeling than a feeling when we get by helping someone to grow as an individual. Seeing lives changing is probably the best feeling in the world and I am one of those lucky people to have that opportunity to change the lives of kids.  And that’s what  makes me nervous as well, I feel this  is a huge responsibility and I know I can’t let down the hopes that is residing on me. There are of course challenges, probably more challenges than opportunities. The biggest challenge again  would be  to  actually transform the lives of kids given the circumstances ,kids come from , given the priorities of their families and  given the total time we spend with kids. Our kids come from very difficult and vulnerable families , the priority of course for them is to guarantee two meals a day for kids and family ,education comes as secondary thing for most of them  and when it comes to teaching skills through after school program ,it might not even be in the list  of their priorities. Our kids spend hardly two hours a day in the program and it all depends on that two hours each day, how long is it going to take to reach the dream, we have been carrying on. The two hours are very crucial and each and every second they spent in the program should be fruitful and I really want to make sure they are learning something good every second they spent with us and it is challenging.

Challenges  are so common when we work with kids, especially when kids already are coming from challenging families, families who rarely have time to see if their kids are doing good, families where second marriages are so common and families where parenting is just about giving two meals a day to kids.  It’s not that the families don’t care; it’s just the circumstances they are in. So challenges are there and overcoming them is nearly impossible at present but the future can be filled with hope and future is the kids we are working with. So it is so important that the kids get every kind of educational opportunities in the program that will lead them or at least guide them towards the better present and future with lots of opportunities for them; a future full of hopes and I have a dream to be in that future, to see all the kids living a happy life or at least getting out of the vicious cycle of poverty they are trapped in.

In spite of  challenges we are paving the road towards the dream and  encouraging kids to walk on those roads ,often roads are blocked ,there are thorns on the way that discourage kids from walking ahead  and as educators  it is our job to remove those thorns and barriers and fill the way with lots of love, hope, beliefs, courage ,encouragement and purpose . As an educator, I believe we have to shed lights, rays of hope, throughout the journey, the journey towards the dream. I strongly believe dreams do come true ,all we have to do is build the road towards it and the road will lead us to the dream as it is said ‘We build the road and the road will build us”.