Another school year has started and I believe I have been blessed to be granted the opportunity to take a course with my favourite Indigenous Studies professor - Dan Longboat. Dan is amazing, and extremely inspirational to me, and many other students. This course that I'm taking is entitled Sustainable Indigenous Communities and the idea behind it, or rather the way the class is structured is that we (the students) are part of this community. Right now at the beginning of the academic year is land, water and air. We have no hardware. We have no software. We have no jellyware (I'll explain jellyware soon). Throughout the course of one year/8 months we will develop our community using the indigenous knowledge and concepts we learn in class to make our community sustainable. Each student has to develop one concept, whether hardware or software that contains that element of jellyware that will make everything work well together.
I sat in the front row of class today and listened intently to every word that escaped Dan's mouth; each word carrying an important message not only about how I can pass this course, but also how I can use what I have learnt in this course to make myself and my country a better place. It's rather interesting that at the beginning of class Dan spoke about doing post graduate studies...i.e. getting a Masters or Second Degree. For quite some time I have been disheartened by the option of acquiring a second degree, and have said that I will not do it. Then recently I did say to my close friends Gemma and Tessa (possible Chanel and Christal as well, but I don't remember) that I would
eventually do my Masters, and I'd do it at Trent. Why Trent? Why again? Because of the Masters programme in Sustainability that is offered at Trent. Having listened to Dan's schpeel today about the difference between a first and second degree, and the importance of doing one, I have become even more inclined to do one, although not directly after I graduate. So may this post act as a declamation (or is it proclamation?) of my desire to pursue and attain my Masters in Sustainability. Listening to Dan's introduction to the course and also merely introducing myself to the class I was reminded of why I came to Trent and given hope that I can make my dreams and goals a reality in Saint Lucia regardless of the times.
The idea behind the course is that we all are members of a community. And at this current point in the semester, in the academic year, our community is only land, air and water. By the end of the course we would have used indigenous concepts along with our own knowledge of our various communities to create a truly sustainable community. Each student is responsible for one topic/aspect of the community whether hardware or software and they are to be innovative and creative in developing it to be sustainable for the community. I am a bit of a scatterbrain and also lack the drive to finish a task completely, hence this is where I am having a little bit of a problem. I can't figure out what am I most passionate about that I can develop through this assignment, that I can use maybe to do my Masters on and to evoke necessary change in my country. There are a few things I am interested in, but which one of these interests is really a passion; something that will carry me throughout this semester and beyond to be what I want to be and do what I want to do. My choices right now are economics, education, urban housing and energy. The more I type, and the more I think about it, the more I feel like education is my calling. Maybe I can investigate that a bit more in terms of my own development, but for the class I will look at what aspects of education and sustainability I can bring to the table. That is not to say that I cannot investigate the other aspects which interest me, to help me be more well rounded. It's just that my primary focus would be education.
I need to remind myself that even though things don't work out the way we want them to, or the way we think they should in hindsight, it doesn't mean that we cannot make it work in the future, or that it isn't the path we were suppose to take altogether. Maybe this actually is my calling. That I am to have all this detailing to my shield and heart which is deeply rooted in education. Maybe my eyes only let me see the option to teach or to be a teacher, whereas the universe, God and everything have me listed to be an educator. The future is looking brighter. The times are changing. I need not limit myself to what I could have done, instead I need to focus on what I can do and should do.
