Head Of The Class

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, ~Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine.~ I've come across this quote many times and never really could understand what it meant until now. In some aspect, each of us is attending the school of life and the world we live in is one big classroom. For the lessons of life are constantly being taught by each and every person one meets who are somewhat considered teachers. Whether it be directly or indirectly he or she can open your eyes and reveal things from a totally different perspective. It's not until we find the answers, which will shed light on our particular situation, that we will continue to stay in the shadows and question everything.

Let me ask you this question, when it came to choosing your seat in the classroom what seat did you pick? For some students, they would choose the back because it represents a place that one can disappear from and hide in the shadows, so to speak. In a way, that is how some people are as they don't want to be noticed and live a life of obscurity. It's a mindset in which a person thinks if he or she is safe in a sea of faces that one will hopefully never be seen and called upon to answer the questions that are either important or unimportant. Yet, life doesn't work that way as there are certain things in life that can't be avoided and solved just by disappearing and hiding.

For other students, they thoroughly enjoy sitting up front and soaking up the knowledge that the teacher is giving to him or her. It's these particular people that stay out of the shadows and are in constant view of the teacher, which can be labeled a teacher's pet. A label that usually comes with consequences as he or she lives a life of torment and ridicule. It's from that person's perspective that if he or she is constantly heard and seen then one will always be remembered, but that is not often the case. Undoubtedly, they may know all the answers to the questions that will be asked, but when it comes to answering questions that concern one's life in general, one usually doesn't have the answer to it.

In any case, for most students, the middle of the classroom is chosen for the simple reason that even though one wants to be seen and answer questions from time to time, he or she doesn't necessarily want to be hidden completely from the world. Initially, a person has that mindset that one can have the best of both worlds, in a manner of speaking, as he or she has one foot in the shadows and the other in light. In a way, it's like a proverbial balance and on any given day one can tip the scales as he or she can be a person who wants to be seen and noticed or the person who wants to disappear. It's within this place, which is considered neutral ground or comfort zone, that he or she is absolutely comfortable in.

As JayZ put it, people can live a hard knock life and in the whole scheme of things we have to go through the school of hard knocks to find out what we are made of. In retrospect, each of may or may not have all the answers that life puts in front of us, but it will be a challenge to try to figure them out. When it comes to life, there are no right or wrong answers; you just go figure it out for yourself. The questions may be the same but the answers may have a different meaning for each of us. In the end, it's the teacher who usually decides whether you are up front, in the middle, or in the back of the class; but when you finally decide to completely step out of the shadows, then you've finally graduated to the head of the class.