I spent Thursday morning at a retention conference. I’m not talking about water retention – although that is something worth conferencing about. I am talking about the kind of retention concerned with keeping students in school.
To those of you who aren’t family, you need to know that I work at a college. In college, student retention is a big deal. We spend a lot of time talking about student retention. We are, after all, in the business of educating students. We would like these students to enter, stay, graduate and (the President would like me to add) turn into happy, generous donors – the circle of life, so to speak.
In the course of this morning’s discussion, we were talking about service, students and issues related to the millennial generation. What ensued is what typically ensues in any of these dialogues – a rant about helicopter parents, feelings of entitlement and student irresponsibility. One might call these things the joys of our job.
After several slides and much discussion about this topic, I leaned over to a colleague and said, “It’s all very simple really, all you have to do is treat others as you wish to be treated.” As we shared a laugh, she replied, “Yeah…in fact, isn’t there a Bible passage about that somewhere?”
Even so, the discussion made me think about the more challenging students that our office works with on a daily basis. I can immediately think of 20 different students that are particularly challenging to deal with. Shoot, before I left the office this morning, one of these 20 had already called two times about the same issue. This particular student is emotionally challenging and can be verbally abusive.
And once again, I said the little prayer that I say whenever these situations arise. “God, you put these 20 people into my life for a reason. I pray that when I interact with them, I am accomplishing your purpose and your will.”
And I really do. I truly hope that when I am listening to a student shout profanity at me over the phone for 20 solid minutes, that I can remember that this is still God’s child. I pray I can remember that God put this person in my life for a reason. Either I am there to teach them, or they are there to teach me. And I pray that I will be able to conduct myself in a manner that is pleasing to God.
Interactions with others are easy when everyone is friendly and things are fun. I find that I learn the most when they aren’t. Trying to view interactions from this perspective is one of the most challenging paths that I walk in this life.
