CAPTAIN’S CHAIR (HAND IN HAND WITH LYS)
Hello, my dear friends of life in my heavenly Turkey, whose health is precious, whose hearts are kind, whose souls are beautiful, and who are full of awareness.
As you know, the LYS exam is drawing near. Starting this week, we are launching a new article series for students and their families.
Our discussions are not limited to the LYS exam. We will also address life’s challenges, communication, and relationships for success and a healthy life. To speak of life success, I believe we must first discuss a healthy society. A healthy society is one composed of ”healthy individuals” with their families, teachers, and many other factors. A healthy individual is someone who can love unconditionally and without anxiety within life, who possesses life awareness—knowing what they want and why they want it—who lives purposefully within their own reality, and who is ”aware” of themselves.
Now, you might rightfully ask me: ‘Oh, teacher, I have a bundle of questions that I need to understand within 30 seconds. Are we given the opportunity to be in harmony with our family and teachers? When studying, going to school, or even breathing, where is the ‘individual’ within our self-awareness and true self? Or is that individual, in everyone’s eyes, not truly an ‘individual’ but merely a student?’
That’s a solid question. Let’s examine it together.
Let’s say you’ve finished your meal. You’re walking towards your room. You turn on the light. You glance around the room and settle into the captain’s chair. You open your books on the table. (I used to stare blankly before opening my books too.) There’s a deep silence in the room. Then you hear a voice:
”This exam seems very important. What do they think of me, do they trust me?”
As a young individual, you need to answer this powerful question with the purest and most genuine intentions. My answer to your question is this:
”If you hear these voices, even occasionally, then you are a student, not an ‘individual,’ within that family and society. Because the difference between them is very important.
Who am I?
What is my purpose?
What am I doing, for what reason, why, and for whom?
Am I doing it conditionally, or unconditionally?
Which of the options below is it?
Look! Do you see? Life itself is an exam. Are we students or individuals? The difference between them is the only difference that will lead you to lifelong success. Sometimes life’s conditions and standards become such that, like billions of people living ordinary and conditional lives, you become trapped in the feeling of praise, appreciation, and being liked, unable to escape. And not just you, of course. This chain of relationships can extend from a mother to a father at home, from a father to a boss at work, from a teacher to a principal at school. What do you do? That’s life. Responsibilities, violated boundaries, choices, and freedoms. Do you truly believe a person who constantly lives in social roles and cannot reach their true self, their psychological roles, is free? When we enter that room, open our books on the table, and are left alone with ourselves, are we truly free? Are we a conscious ‘individual’ who questions themselves and tries to find meaning? Or are we just students in this life?
WEEKLY AWARENESS NOTE
As I always say in my columns, there are many colors to discover on this colorful canvas we call life. There is much to learn from every color we like or dislike—its black, white, red, and blue. The important thing is to possess this awareness. The picture within our inner world is sometimes chaotic. Wavy and stormy. Just like the picture above. If you have taken the captain’s chair on your life’s ship, then you are now responsible for the safety of all passengers on that ship. Perhaps no one knows the darkness within your inner world, but if you chart your course based on praise, appreciation, and the desire to be liked, sooner or later you will get lost in this ocean.
Remember that social media phenomenon’s quote: ”No storm can hinder a ship that knows its destination.”
Uğur Uğural
