A Memorable Learning Experience...

When I found out our home blogging assignment was to write about a meaningful learning experience in our past, my first thought had nothing to do with school. Don't get me wrong. I learned a lot in school, but it alwasy came easily to me. The most meaningful learning experience I had came as an adult and was very much performance based.

As a member of the Boy Scouts of America, I was very active and was eventually honored with membership in an elite group. Part of the ceremony surrounding that elite status was tending a fire all through the night. I had been working as a waiter and trainer for Chi Chi's Restaurant at the time and had to go to camp the next morning after only 3 hours of sleep. Needless to say, I was dragging all that day prior to the ceremonies. It was so bad I even drank coffee, yes that foul and bitter concoction that everyone else in the world seems to thrive on but forsome reason remains an anethema to me.

The learning experience involved NOT having everything come easy. Try as I might I had the most difficult time in maintaining my campfire. It had rained earlier so everything was soaked. My placement was at the base of an old camping road with wind nearly constantly whipping down the hillside. No matter what I did, I could not keep a steady fire. I would try time and time again with what kindling I could deem dry enough. Even when I got the fire to a point where I thought it would continue to grow, the wind would race with greater force down that old road and snuff it out.

What I learned was hard, it was that success is not always in the result but in the effort. I had the misfortune of never having to learn that as a child, but am glad I learned it as an adult. That has replaced my expectation of success with one where I can truly learn from all my experiences, without any fear of failure.