A lesson on Humility

Its been a strange sort of day. First in the morning, I got into trouble with the department's secretary because of the non-response to emails which I mentioned in my previous post. In the afternoon, my colleague at Symphony Hall decided to rant at me which upset me a little but I was later told by another colleague 'Take no notice of him. Just let it wash over your head.' And so I did. I ignored that grumpy colleague for the rest of the shift.

Then the ultimate came in the evening. There was a private function in Symphony Hall which I was working for and one of my professors was invited to it. My duty of the first half of the evening was to be in charge of the make-shift cloakroom. When my professor came up to me with his coat, he commented 'Well, this is a lowly job for a postgraduate research student isn't it?' That infuriated me. What I do at Symphony Hall is a decent job. It teaches me a lot about working life, arts management, customer service; and more importantly, its related to what I study. I get to meet great people and friends who have been like family to me. Yes, the pay might be meagre but the experience and what I learn through my years there is priceless. In my mind, I was thinking that my professor has probably never had to work his way through University.

I have to be clear on a point: I don't solely work for the money. My mum provides me with more than I need. But I always feel that it is good to learn how to earn money when you're young and save up. You never know when you might need it for a rainy day. Besides, I learn A LOT from my job and I get to watch concerts as I work!

Anyway, later in this private function, the Principal of Birmingham Conservatoire then had to make a speech. He mentioned how young people these days have to make a lot of judgement calls: How much time should they sacrifice to work while they study? Do they work for just the money or for the experience? How do they juggle work and studies? How do students find ways to fund themselves through Higher Education?

If I were daring enough, I would have replied to my professor when he made that demeaning remark 'My job at present teaches me how to have humility as a youth so that when I get to your age, I wouldn't turn out to be like you.'

I've totally lost respect for that professor now. Its not the first time he's made such a comment at me when he's visited Symphony Hall. I'm surprised he's not learnt anything about since he was my undergraduate dissertation tutor for an entire year. One day, I shall prove it to him that the humble steward who helped take care of his coat while he attend that private function for rich and pompous people, can make good.

To be humble to superiors is duty; to equals courtesy; to inferiors nobleness.