Tag: change

Choosing Hope: A Vocation for Educators

This post explores the relationship between vocation and hope, arguing that very nature of a purposeful vocation obliges us to cultivate hope in our lives and our work. Especially as educators, we are called to choose hope in our work with students and create meaningful learning experiences that allow them to do so the same.

a person holding an open book
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You will not find hope in the headlines. A daily reader of the news and a parent of children ages four, six, and nine, I confronted this paralyzing fact when I read this headline in early September—“Minneapolis Catholic school shooting leaves 2 children dead, 21 people injured.” As I began drafting my concluding post to this series on the theme of hope, I wondered: How do I write about hope in this context? I faced an especially steep challenge, one that had already felt formidable months ago. As I mourned the tragic shooting, I came to see more clearly: hope is, in and of itself, a chosen vocation. It requires practice, strength, and imagination—a wholehearted willingness to keep envisioning new possibilities, even when the odds feel long. Truth be told, it is the harder choice.

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Coping with Loss: Supporting Students when They Navigate Unforeseen Academic Changes

Joseph, a first-generation honors student, struggled in his first-year chemistry course, earning a C, which led to doubt about pursuing medicine. Many students face similar pressures regarding GPA and vocational goals. Institutions must proactively support students experiencing academic difficulties, emphasizing vocational exploration and mental well-being resources to alleviate distress and promote resilience.

overwhelmed young man against trigonometry calculations
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Joseph was a high-achieving first-generation student who graduated with honors from his high school. He aspired to pursue medicine but suddenly found himself struggling in his first-year chemistry course. At the end of the fall term, he earned a C. Learning had come naturally to him during high school, requiring little time outside of school. He now needed to learn to study independently but was unsure how to retain information. Writing lab reports was also new to him. Resolved to improve, he met with a tutor during the first half of the spring semester, but when he looked at his midterm grades, his stomach dropped. After all his work, he still had a C. Panic set in as he doubted his ability to pursue medicine. He also remembered he needed to register for fall courses the next week. Unsure how to proceed and apprehensive about his future, he decided it was time to meet with his advisor.

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The Art of Adaptation

Our lives are a series of adaptations, not only as we continually reshape ourselves to new forms and contexts but also as we embody each state of being newly shaped. As we are re-purposed over and over again, we must rearticulate our vocations as well.

Even without reading recent studies of Americans’ streaming habits, we’d probably all guess that far more content is being streamed now than prior to the pandemic. I’ve been fascinated by the number of adaptations available on streaming services both in back catalogs and as original content: adaptations of novels, of movies, of comic books, of biographies. Adaptations are as old as narrative itself (the oral tradition is an adaptive tradition), but the presence of streaming content in our lives seems to make them newly ubiquitous. For those of us who love adaptations, streaming services provide treasure after treasure. It’s a fascinating genre, offering us the familiar and the alien simultaneously—creating within us a kind of comfortable discomfort that doesn’t seem too risky. 

Lithub’s 40 Best Literary Adaptations to Stream Right Now

As a genre, adaptations can help us shape conversations about vocation. While it may not seem odd to say that we adapt to new situations, it may sound very odd to say that we are ourselves adaptations. Yet this may be useful. The word “adaptation” has multiple definitions: the action of adapting one thing to another; the state of being suitable for a particular purpose or place; a revised version of a text or other creative work. In its multiple definitions, it signifies both process and product. Our lives are a series of adaptations, not only as we continually reshape ourselves to new forms and contexts but also as we embody each state of being newly shaped. I think that most of us have a sense of self that at its core seems constant—a kind of source text that is unchanging—but also conceive of ourselves as changing over time, as not being the same person as we were years ago. As we are re-purposed over and over again, we must rearticulate our vocations as well.

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