Slowest in The Room

My daughter has a tendency to complain, a lot. Especially if she finds something to be a bit difficult and she didn’t want to do it in the first place, i.e. it was a task set either by her parents or teacher. She’ll huff and puff while complaining that it is so hard!

I’ll then preach that things are always hard before it gets easy, and relates all the times she felt like giving up (or had, and was forced to do it again). Usually my examples are when she was starting to read and stuttered on the words a lot, whereas now she reads novels in just a few days. She then concedes that it was hard at first but now she feels it is nothing and enjoys reading a lot (so much so, that she now has to be forced to stop!). Anyways, I then sat with a smug face and my daughter will then plough with her current hard task.

A few weeks recently I was given a task of doing something with a few electronics part, which consist of tinkering with a Raspberry Pi. I have been using Windows and have never seen Linux, and Raspberry Pi unfortunately uses Linux. I had then to learn how to use to manipulate the electronics, which I have no idea how to do. Additionally I also need to understand how this electronics are used in the current running project, which requires me to join meetings. This meetings are so detail, and foreign to me, that the acronyms escaped me and I have to google them a few time.

It starts to bog me down a bit. Being the slowest in the room is not really fun. But then again, I was reminded of how I always preach to my daughter, about things being tough before getting easy. I guess being parent forces you to walk your talk, and in this case I have to persevere. I consoled myself that things will get better – I will understand better – and I will be proficient that I will forget how hard everything was. I will not be the slowest in the room (well at least not all the time). I like to remind myself of the axiom, “If you are the smartest person in the room, you are not at the right place.”

I might add, “If you are the slowest person in the room, you might be in the right place. Just remember to open the windows to let the linux air in.”

Thank you for reading.