The Student News Site of Gannon University since 1947

THE GANNON KNIGHT

The Student News Site of Gannon University since 1947

THE GANNON KNIGHT

The Student News Site of Gannon University since 1947

THE GANNON KNIGHT

Changing the World One Step At A Time

The barrier of self-improvement is not so much that we hate learning, rather we

hate being taught. To learn entails that the knowledge was achieved on one’s own accord – it feels great – but to be taught often leaves a feeling of inferiority. Thus, it takes a bit of determination and a lot of humility in order for one to fully develop.

I think as we move forward as individuals here at Gannon University and in our own personal developments, we have to consistently analyze the events that are happening around us and directly affecting us. We occasionally have to slow down, take a moment to breathe  and pray about what’s happening around us and directly to us.

Sometimes we get overwhelmed with all the bad things happening in our lives,  and we lose sight of what really matters.

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This time of year can force us to keep running so fast that we get burnt out quickly.  With midterms, papers and all the other things to keep up with, it’s no wonder we get burnt out, but there’s a solution. Being busy doesn’t mean we can’t find a way to calm down and replenish ourselves.

Gannon’s Mission and Ministry will be holding a “Busy Person’s Retreat” here for the Gannon community, and if you sign up, you will take 30 minutes a day to slow down and pray and also 30 minutes a day to meet with a spiritual director and process what’s happening in your prayer life.

We should all take on a challenge to do a personal “Busy Person’s Retreat.”. We should take 30 minutes from our day to sit down and pray. If you don’t know how to pray, that’s not a problem. Find a comfortable spot in your room or go to Mary, Seat of Wisdom or wherever you find the most peace and sit in the silence.

Bring your worries, your joy, your fears and everything else in your heart to a safe place and listen.

If you can spend 30 minutes in silence just listening, you’ll be surprised at the answers you’ll receive without even asking questions.

On a side note, this seems like a weird time for love. In my own personal community, I’ve been seeing a lot of friends experiencing heartache and sadness and I really wanted to touch on that.

Fall seems like a fitting time also to talk about things passing from one stage to the next.

When we look at ourselves, maybe we can think of ourselves like fall. When you look at the trees you can see one of two things: you can see death from one season to the next as the leaves die or you can see resurrection.

I think it’s human for us to look at someone and hope that they’re going to be the right one for us. We almost expect them to be our “happily ever after” and when they don’t live up to our expectations, we devalue them as irrelevant to our current happiness. The truth is that we have a lot to learn from heartache and pain, and I wish we didn’t, but we do; I do.

Being alone has taught me many things: it’s taught me that people are sometimes selfish and sometimes they’re rude. But mostly, people are scared to be vulnerable.

We’ve all been hurt. We all know what it feels like to trust someone with our heart and our friendship and be let down when they don’t live up to that. And if we’re continuing to be honest, we know we’ve been on the opposite end of that spectrum too many times.

Being human and being a faith-filled person is accepting the fact that we are going to make mistakes but we have a God that isn’t going to leave us in those mistakes. He takes us from our sadness, from our grief into a place where we can expand and grow.

 

So just to leave you with a little piece of advice: know you’re not for everyone.

Know that some people don’t deserve to be in your life. Know that some people are meant to be there. But most importantly, know that you have a responsibility to be present in your life regardless of who else is. This life is what you make of it.

 

JARED SCHAAF

[email protected]

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