When I first walked along the corridor of the Mass Media Department, ten years ago, I cared very much for the job with which I was going to be entrusted but I was also hollow inside. I had just lost my sister and a loss like that has a shape-shifting power. I was a phantom with how immaterial and invisible I wanted to become. I wanted to slip in and out of classes without being attached to anything tangible. I would rush home immediately after classes hoping that I have done enough social engagement what with my brisk “hii and hellos” and bright smiles that day. However, the cacophony of Rajani, Rose, Nat, Lim, Eta, Cherry, Dondor, Cathy, Juni, Karen, Ruky happened. These are a group of people who love to eat, fight and work till their eyes wash out. They love challenges. Their sport is moving mountains. They are eager to teach just as they are hungry for knowledge. They are so incredibly loud and mad, I thought. I was lost but more importantly, it became clear to me that I was in a house with members who do not care how lost you feel. In their house, you can sit (or stand) if you wish and be as lost as you want to be. They are there with your loss without ever making you feel like you are accommodating too much space. That was a kind of kindness. And kindness that lets you be has a way of gently calling all the lost ships of your life safely to shore.
Dr. Cherry, in her unpatronising wisdom, dangled the carrot of this event and that festival in front of me. It did not matter to her that I was terribly inexperienced. She gave me the freedom to plan, plot, organise. I was enticed and then I was hooked. She single-handedly took me in and let me be the best that I could be. So, I would stare at the behemoth task in front of me and thought of wolves with steely fangs a lot of times. Metaphors and the department’s methods and madness are what got me through many days. It was, however, the students that gave this house the true chaos and love of a home. I have never in my life dealt with the full spectrum of human emotions and behaviour in one class, let alone one day.
There is only one way to handle this peculiar situation, I thought. Be wholehearted.
Because the entire department of Mass Media functions on this premise -wholeheartedness.
Happy Birthday, my dearest family. May you continue to change lives for the better.
Onwards!
- Dr. Amanda Christie Tongper
14th September 2022
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