I was feeling a bit down because I realise how unemphatic people can be during this trial time. Indeed. I don’t expect to be understood with all the predicaments that I am facing at the moment, but being those with certain privileges do not give any of us the right to downgrade, belittle others on the predicaments they are experiencing.
It is frustrating at times but I guess each of us have so many things going on at the moment and all of us are struggling to deal with the challenges that we are facing and thus, it could lead us to appear as less emphatic at this moment. This is the way I see it.
Some students PM (private message) me letting me know about the challenges that they face in other courses when their requests, needs and device capabilities are being ignored. What does this has to do with me? I am not teaching the course. It is challenging to be the mediator and it might backfire at times. But I know that I need to do something about it.
I try to ease their concerns the best I could. Sometimes, all I do is just lending them my ears because I don’t know how to help them with the technical glitches that they experience (I am no expert in this myself). After some time, I realise that all they need is someone who is willing to listen. Someone they can share their burden. It does not take much other than few minutes (or hours if you have large class like mine) to be a good listener.
But, being a listener to others and yet having little support myself does take a toll on me. In adjustment psychology class which I took with Amber Hague, I learn that we have a choice to define the situation that we are experiencing. In this case, I perceive this as a challenging situation. It is temporal. I might struggle to face it but it is ok. I need to be aware about myself and things around me. Whatever it is, Allah Will ease the path. Being patience is rewarding.
One of my colleagues suggested that we need to do daily muhasabah. To help me doing this activity, I ask my students to give comments about my teaching during this tough time. Indeed. We support each other to face this challenging time.
