What Moves Me?

She has that aura of stiffness especially with glasses on, you could hardly see a smile on her face, she stares at you and watches your every move. It could be her strategy to keep that distance to her students or she could be just that, as a person. Last week, I was caught in a very awkward situation after class. I realized I forgot my jacket under the desk, oh my! Worse, it was raining outside, I needed to get it! With all the courage I could muster, I approached her hesitantly. I almost could not believe she was nicely escorting me back to get my jacket. She was pure human after all. On the way out of the building, I found it easier to chat with her about school, kids and work. Then I asked her that very question which made her laugh out loud, " Oh Miss, why aren't you considering marriage?" She answered me, "You do a case study on me." Then I found myself speaking about marriage and raising beautiful kids, about having a husband who takes care of me. But she was kind of indifferent, I wonder what happened in the past which turned her into a skeptical woman that she is today. Doesn't she believe in the power of love? I still do wonder sometimes why such a likable, so intelligent woman like her could not find herself a partner. Well, she has her own reasons as well and I should let her enjoy her most-needed privacy on the matter. I said my thanks and bade my goodbyes, off she went while I joined my other group mates waiting outside the building.
One Friday afternoon, our group went to school to get a copy of our rated case analyses as Dr. Chaves ordered us to do. When we arrived, our group mate, Ruth, was already inside the faculty room chatting with her. We hesitated to join them at first but she called us in, so we all seated ourselves in front of her. She commented on our works, good thing we came coz we missed to attach the rating sheets, reason enough for her not being able to rate our works. We rushed to the nearest internet cafe to print the rating sheet, so edgy as she appeared so stern to us and reiterating that she will be leaving town the following morning. She had to go overtime that night to check and critique our respective works which according to her uses up one whole ballpen due to the lengthy comments she would put on the paper. We then agreed to get our duly checked cases the following morning at six-thirty or she would just leave it to the dorm's caretaker, Auntie Syl. Before we went off, she requested us to return those checked papers to our classmates as we would be meeting them in our Econ class on Sundays. So, I took the papers of the morning class and Lor took the papers of those belonging in the afternoon class.
I had this itch of peeking at my classmates' works, their grades and especially Ms. Chaves' comments. I knew it was inappropriate but I did glance over the works of some selected few, those people I know and those I found active class participators, so curious how they wrote their cases and how they fared in general. Well, those I regarded highly fared so well, while a few others did not do quite well, I started to get anxious about mine. I was asking myself if I made sense in my reasoning and all. Nevertheless, I got too excited to have my paper back.
When Ruth handed me my paper the following afternoon, I immediately glanced over the rating sheet and to my greatest surprise, she gave me high grades, they ranged from 1.5 to 1.25, I could not quite believe what I was seeing! I had to really get a closer look at each of them to internalize what those grades meant. I still saw the red ink marks, the suggestions and comments on my paper and those comments of disagreement to some arguments that I penned there. I was so shy to openly show my joy and pride in front of my group mates but my heart was singing with joy. All I did was to reassure them that the next case would definitely be better to shift the mood to a lighter tone.
So far, so good. I'm doing quite well in my schooling and I could feel the adrenaline rush every time I prepare my things for school. I read the topics in advance if I have spare time, it seems that my efforts are now centered at my masteral classes most especially in 201. I get excited to meet up with my group almost daily after office hours. Whatever it is that motivates me, that moves me into doing the things I do now, I bet is an inherent thing inside me. As Dr. Chaves said, "When your hand is into something, it's certain that your heart is also into it." And I subscribe to it without any doubt. Thanks to Ms. Chaves for inspiring me, for motivating me and for moving me to do what I ought to do. I am excited to learn more and more every single day. I hope this fire keeps on burning until I finish this course, I hope the sharing would never end, I wish I would see my group mates everyday to enrich our lives by the sharing we have and glorify the Most High in the process of interacting.