Tenacity

Imagine for a moment that you are six years old. Now imagine boarding an airplane, flying across the globe and entering a country where everyone and everything is new: the dress, the food, the cultural norms and perhaps most significantly, the language.

I am currently working with a little boy who recently moved from Africa. His experience is very much like the one described. Each day he comes to school where no one speaks his language, where he is continually engaged in a game of guess and point, where he struggles to communicate his needs and wants. I am amazed by his tenacity as he faces each day trying to decipher the words of his teacher and his peers, trying to fit into this foreign world.

As I teach this young boy the alphabet and how to speak and read English, he teaches me about courage and overcoming obstacles. Christopher Reeve has said, “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”

I think I’ve found a hero.

 

 

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