Life is full of companions

I have been blessed to have a number of companions throughout my life; friends (both real and imagined, when I was young), family, girlfriends, work colleagues, sports team members, school mates and people I have met on my travels who have shared a brief but enlightening companionship. There has been no shortage of solid, dependable, supportive and loving companions in my life and for that I am eternally grateful.

We always had pets – cats, budgie, and goldfish – so there was always a fluffy, feathered or scaly companion around. Mum still has cats so when I visit her I get to have my cat ‘quality time’.

An old flatmate of mind used to enjoy drinking sessions with a 'companion'. These were usually an inanimate object. I remember one enjoyable drinking session in a dodgy but welcoming Enmore pub where it was just the two of us and a BBQ gas bottle. By the end of the evening that gas bottle had an opinion on everything and a number of the punters in the pub were convinced that my friend and I were stark raving mad.

Inanimate objects have also provided me with companionship; he-man action figures, transformers, hot wheels toy cars, bikes, computer consoles (Atari, commodore 64, PC and now Mac), skateboards, cricket bats, cars, mobile phone and wallet. All of these items have provided me with solace in times of boredom, need, despair and sadness.

There are then the environmental companions, the ones you have very little control over, companions who can adversely affect you like nothing else can. The kind of companion you’d shield your face from or cross the street to avoid a meeting if they human. I have lived across the world in many different climates and thus have had the pleasure, or displeasure, of encountering a number of these companions.

In the small town I grew up in cold was a constant companion. The wind chill factor of a winter’s early morning was one companion you could well and truly do without. On the occasions I met this fellow I was left breathless, numbed and in the possession of two semi-frozen eyeballs. Not pleasant, not at all. This companion was persistent. Should you spend your nights indoors, snuggled up in a toasty warm slumber, the minute you went out to your car he welcomed you again. There is no greater joy on a below zero morning than to extract a credit card with numbed lifeless fingers and proceed to painstakingly scrape a thin layer of ice from the windscreen. That is fun my friends, good old-fashioned joy.

Toronto in high summer provided a different, but equally gracious, companion. The ‘Muggy-heat’ companion was always ready for action, constantly welcoming and hard to distract. That we lived on the top floor of an 8 storey tin box with a flat roof, no cross breeze, no curtains and no air-conditioning assisted this companion to maximise his presence. Many a day and night was spent prone on the couch, bathed in sweat, dehydrated beyond repair wondering when this companion would just #@$% off. When a good friend brought over an air-conditioner and our companion was banished I could have married her on the spot.

This summer (a word I use loosely) I have been introduced to a Queensland native companion. This guy loves the rain and this summer his boots must be worn thin from the rain dancing he has been performing. The flood crisis we are experiencing is testament to the ferocity and unnerving regularity of the rain. This rain, coupled with high humidity, provides the perfect environment for my new companion. Mould. Yep. Yuck.

I was looking through my cupboard and thought ‘what an odd smell’. It was not offensive, just odd. Upon further inspection I found my new mate ‘Mould’ hanging out on my bags, shoes, jacket and a few other items. I was unimpressed by his arrival and come this weekend he will be thrown out on his ear.

What this goes to show is that no one is ever truly alone. Even those living in a cave, shipwrecked on a remote island, or lost in the desert will still have a companion.

In this modern day can we not find somewhere, anywhere, where we can truly be alone?

It seems not.

We just need to make the most of it and be selective about the companions we keep and the ones we bid a swift goodbye.

Both sides of the education coin

Education is the cornerstone of our society – if we all rested on our laurels and never attempted to improve our knowledge and skills the world we have come to know and love would hit a permanent snag. The ability to explore new avenues, share our thoughts and experiences with like-minded individuals, to challenge our beliefs and enrich our lives are some of the reasons that people continue to welcome education’s embrace throughout their lives.

Education comes in many forms – the structured form such as academic study through tertiary education providers or office based training, practical trade related education, through to conversations had over a cup of coffee or a good meal – the key is that through this education we are improving our knowledge, challenging our beliefs and are then able to pass this knowledge onto others, continuing the education process.

I have recently returned to tertiary study and it was a challenging undertaking full of adjustment, doubt, worry and wide-eyed optimism. After one semester I am a transformed pupil; gone is the doubt and worry, replaced by a heightened inquisitiveness, a thirst for knowledge and a need to explore.

I have also just completed my first foray into the labyrinth of tertiary tutoring – a world of questions, responsibility, instruction and challenges – and overall it was a rewarding and enriching experience. I’ll be upfront and say that a lot of the time I was barely keeping my head above water, and drowning was, at times, an acceptable option but it was an experience that has moulded my personality and provided me with skills and knowledge I can transfer to other areas of my life. Surprisingly it was not like Dead Poets Society, my life was not threatened like Michelle Phiffer’s was – it was very much like a University class presentation for 5 hours every week. Like a talk show host, professional sportsperson, public speaker or husband returning from a night on the beers I had to get my gameface on, take a deep breath and enter the arena.

To capture, sustain and entertain an audience consistently is very difficult and I drew on my repertoire of poor jokes, poor impersonations and party noises to compliment the educative experience, often to a mixed or non-existent response. 12-15 years difference in age does not sound a lot, but in the classroom it can really make a difference when communicating. A number of my 120 students have not known a world without mobile phones, internet and computers – when I first studied at University we barely had email addresses, the internet was a black screen with white font and the only phone I had was a landline. Teaching in 2010 is an electronic smorgasbord, where navigation and adoption is noticeably easier for the students than the teachers. The generational difference makes it a challenging environment.

Shaping minds is an enormous responsibility and luckily I was well supported by a content expert – my role was to reinforce and provide real-life examples – to mould the information into easily accessible chunks. The lightbulb moments, those times when you sense a concept taking hold and being absorbed, made the job rewarding.

The semester went well and by the end I was confident that I had represented myself adequately, the students were mostly pleased with the outcomes of the tutoring and I could walk out of the University grounds with my head held high. My student feedback arrived today and I must admit I was a little hesitant about opening the envelope – half expecting the puff of anthrax powder or the telltale click of a trigger mechanism. All I found though was a pile of response papers.

The results were in. How did I fare?

Pretty well, actually. There were a few negative comments; one especially low blow about the one thing I could improve was ‘my jokes’ – I mean, where do these people get off? It did show that personality, confidence and humour can get you a long way – that people can take on a unique challenge and do well; or, at least, create the impression of doing well.

I have experienced both sides of the education fence in recent times and both have been rewarding and enriching experiences. To extricate yourself from the workforce, relocate your life and enter an unfamiliar territory is not easy but it can be done. If you are not happy, if you crave a challenge, if you need to improve your life or prospects or if you just want a change then go ahead and do it. You’ll never regret taking a chance, only not taking a chance.

Do it, and let me know how it goes.