Day 13: My sources of motivation

There's no class but whole-day meetings these few days, and I've been thinking whether teaching is what I truly want to do.

On Saturday I was reorganising some backup files at home, when I found emails from Y, a former student of mine. I started to teach her Japanese for almost 2 years when I was still a fresh graduate, and she was already a famous writer (only that we didn't know) who had her own column in a popular newspaper in Hong Kong.

In her emails, she mentioned more than once that I should be teaching and mentioned how special I was, especially for...

My passion for what I teach
My smile
My willingness to motivate and help students
My creativity

I should really thank Y for encouraging me to teach - and reminding me of how good I was.

All I need now is a bit of encouragement and recognition - but since when have I become a person with DEPENDENT self-esteem?

Maybe it's the conversation going around, officially and unofficially that reminds me constantly of the possible layoff?

Maybe it's the drive for the school to change that ignores the basic needs of the teachers?

Maybe...

Whatever it is, all I need now is just a bit of encouragement and recognition, and I should thank Y for giving me the motivation to teach.

PS In the Japanese drama, the employees would be really touched and cry when the boss or the manager says to them "あなたは必要なんだ！" (Our company needs you!) It looks a bit over the top to me, but sometimes maybe we do need some sort of recognition like that. Strangely sometimes the schools do things the other way round.