Have you ever been lost?
Maybe lost in the woods?
Or lost in a city?
How did it feel?
Probably not good.
Worried. Stressed. Panicked….
When I first meet with a private student, that’s how a lot of them tell me they feel.
They are lost.
And my job is to show them where they are and where they need to go.
I point them to the path that leads them out of the woods.
Let’s talk about how you can find your path.
But first…
Hello, Again
Last week I said goodbye to my family and drove to Dulles International Airport.
“Thanks for the turkey. It was a lovely Christmas. And I’ll see you all again this summer.”
Three hours later I was back.
I had packed my passport.
I had packed my ticket.
But one thing I “forgot” (I didn’t know I needed it), was a covid test.
Without one of those, they won’t even let you look at an airplane that’s going to the UK.
It doesn’t even matter if you’re just going to stay in the airport and wait for your next flight.
Oh, well.
I’ll try again next week.
Too bad I finished all the turkey.
A Walk In The Woods
So with my new-found extra time, I went for another walk in the woods.
It’s been a snowy February here in Virginia and the forests are lovely.
But sometimes the snow covers the path.
Wander off the path, and it’s easy to loose your way.
You want to leave the woods and return to your car.
But you don’t know where to go.
Is it this way?
Or this way?
Or maybe this way?
But then you see it — the path!
And you feel calm again: you know everything is going to be alright.
That’s how it is on the right path.
You know that all you have to do is follow it and eventually you’ll get to where you want to go.
Unfortunately, most students are lost; they don’t see the path. And it’s getting dark. And the wolves are getting closer…
Or they’re on a path, but they make wrong turns, and after many months or years, they find themselves in the same place where they started.
I complain about schools a lot. But one good thing they do is provide a path.
Unfortunately, their path stops at a place called “Intermediate.”
And if you want to leave Intermediate, the schools can’t help you.