Jul 6th, 2022 Cloudy/Rainy Wednesday
My sweet kitty Lyn went through a severe disease earlier this year that almost took her away. We had to rush her to the emergency room, and were told to give her everything she wanted since there would not be much time left.
Maybe my prayers were answered. Maybe the envoy to the other world decided that it was not time yet. Maybe she was just reluctant to leave her mommy and daddy. Miraculously, she came back to us, becoming playful and mischievous again (yes she resumed her attempt to get to the kitchen sink too…) 🙂
But she still had small appetite, especially compared to the amount she used to eat. She was also unusually clingy (she would meow non-stop until we picked her up on our lap). Even if we put down her food plate right in front her, she would still want to climb onto our lap, naturally not eat much from the plate ?
One day, I concocted her favorite pate for her, laid it on the carpet in front of her, then sat down next to her to relax. Lyn looked back and forth between my now-easily-accessible lap, and her delicious pate – a difficult choice had to be made: lap or food?
Then it occurred to me: she should not have to choose the right answer in this situation, because she can have BOTH!
That is how she got into the habit of eating on one of our laps. As a result, she started eating more and more, and she even gained some weight back!
It is unfortunate that not everything in life works out like that. More often than not, we have to make a choice. Worse still, sometimes there is no right answer.
I had to make such a choice today. A student was asking to enroll in a course that I am in charge of, three weeks after the eight-week session started. It is a course that aims to help students prepare for a more challenging course in the next semester, but it is also graded based on performance (assignment due each week) and would count towards their GPA. If I allow the student to enroll, s/he would have to catch up with all the work in a more condensed time period, and his/her academic history strongly suggests that s/he would find the materials challenging, even if s/he did enroll in time. At the same time, s/he definitely could benefit from going through the contents of this course to be more ready for the fall.
What should I do? What is the right answer?
I pondered, talked to different people, tossed a coin, and even did a tarot reading (!!! I hope the student never finds out that this is one of my decision making methods 😛 ). I still do not have the right answer.
It was at that moment that I realized – there is NO right answer here. Regardless of my choice, the outcome would not be perfect. Unlike a finished script for a show, I cannot predict which direction the story will unfold.
Sometimes it takes us FOREVER to make a decision, because we want to make sure our decision IS the right one, so we need to consider EVERYTHING, even if in reality, there is no right answer. Either choice could lead to a happy ending (e.g. the student is motivated and works extra hard, thus getting a good grade in the challenging course) or a sad ending (e.g. the student is ill-prepared and barely pass the challenging course).
Sometimes, the choice alone does not determine the story. We never lose the power to steer our life towards a brighter future. So no need to fret over it that much, right? ?