Wisdom

“A”s on a report card sure do make people feel good. What better way to show you actually know something in this world, right? Unfortunately, excellent grades, as awesome as they may make us feel, do not necessarily indicate how much someone actually understands about their world. The class brainiac may have all the facts memorized, but without wisdom, she’s just a cup that can be filled and poured at will. I was just like any other empty-headed smarty-pants, until my Wise Wonder Woman taught me exactly how to make the important stuff stick in my mind.

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SAT, SAT, SAT……My mind was reeling from brutal encounters with various Critical Reading sections and Math section formulas. It was the week before I was going to take the SAT and I was so nervous you could have cut through tension in my bedroom with a knife.

I had been studying in my bedroom since I had gotten home from school that day. Green sunglasses perched on my head, I had been reviewing vocab cards and math problems all afternoon. My stress levels elevated with each turn of the pages in my study books, and by the time my mom called me for dinner that day, I was overflowing with anxiety.

I feel like everything I’m doing isn’t helping me face this beastly test, I thought. Well, at least I only have this test to focus on…

BEEP! My cell phone was receiving a text message, a welcome distraction to my anxious eyes. “Hey Abi, don’t forget we need you to call the office for Key Club and send in that form ASAP.” Ugh, I thought, maybe this wasn’t as welcome a distraction as I wished it was. I completely forgot about that club stuff!

Logging on my computer to print out the forms I needed, I felt extremely burdened in all my obligations. SAT, clubs, what else do I need to do?!

A friendly Facebook update about an upcoming history test added to my mental madness. That’s right, the test is this week. I haven’t read over the notes at all this week! But I have to study for SAT \, oh yeah, and that club stuff too…AHHHH! How is this going to get done???

As I was drowning in a deluge of my thoughts, I received a text from by WWW that rescued me from myself. It read, “Hey girl, what’s up?”

I replied, “I’m okay…=P just really, really busy. How about you?”

“I’m pretty good =). What’s keeping you so busy?” WWW texted back.

Poor WWW heard everything that had made its way into my head that day. After filling a few text messages with all the news of that day, I typed, “And I just don’t know how I’m going to get everything I need done.”

I’m stuck, like a fly on sticky paper, I thought. I don’t know how I’ll make it out of this mess….

BEEP! WWW’s text interrupted my worries. In a clear, simply put phrase of wisdom, my WWW typed, “Abi, you know you can ask others for help, right? Just because you ask for help doesn’t mean you aren’t as strong as I know you are. =)”

That short message penetrated me to my core. Well, yeah, I can ask for help….But I can do it..., I thought. Oh, wait a second, actually I can’t do it all by myself…Why didn’t I think of that? I realized that I never thought about asking for help because I was so absorbed in working hard and doing the best I could on my own. Of course, even though I had all the resources available to me, because I had not asked anyone for help, I felt helpless. WWW’s little package of wisdom truly helped me, and I was so awed by that small but powerful piece of advice that all I could text back was what I truly felt: “Thank you. =)”

Lesson Learned: Wisdom trumps knowledge every time. Reciting the dictionary is not nearly as important as expressing the few words you really need to show someone you truly care for them; being a classroom genius won’t do much for you unless you learn how to apply your facts to the world around you. With wisdom, one can see beyond the stress, anxiety, anger, and disappointment in life and discover the hidden opportunities to realize that every experience truly is incredible. J

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Reinhold Niebuhr

“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” Ralph Waldo Emerson