Going Skating with Students

Haven't you found that everyday life endangering activities--such as skating, eating hot pot or crossing the street--are rendered exponentially more intense when done with a camera in your hands?
That's what I thought when I went skating with some other teachers and some students today. I myself didn't have a camera, but I saw Shannon with her camera, capturing some truly priceless moments when various people fell down. I was empathetic in concern for her safety. When carrying technology such as Carlo (my computer,) Jaylen (my camera) or--when near water--even Carol (my phone) I find I am much more careful and nervous, because then I actually have something on board whose safely and well-being I actually want to protect.

Here's today's devotional insight. I was skating with a very scared student who had never skated before. The thing about bringing Nationals along is that about half of them have never skated or skated mostly as children. So it's really hard to teach them. However, I was really happy for all the times I skated while holding a frightened student.
So there were two insights I gained from Kate, actually
1) you can't skate the same way you walk. I think she had a lot of difficulty because she was trying to walk with wheels on, which didn't work. It occurred to me that I have to see that mentality in a lot of things, like speaking and living. You can't try to speak a knew language using the same sounds of your native language. You can't live in a new country like this one they way you live in your home country. I knew that already, but now I had a new analogy. Even though skating looks like walking, the friction that drives it is different, the angles of motion are different and even posture is different.
2) I learned how to skate backwards only while helping Kate to skate forwards. For a few weeks I have resented my failure to learn how to skate backwards. I have practiced out on the streets and always failed to keep it up, but today I figured it out. I want to attribute the sudden change to its necessity to helping someone else. I wanted to be face to face with my student, so I had to move backwards and eventually I got the hang of it. This goes along with a lot of things I believe about serving others. In many circumstances I have found that I get really stuck when other people focus intensely on me and my problems. But when I am giving an opportunity to serve someone else's needs, my own problems rapidly develop solutions. So there you have it, another advantage of helping others.