A while back, I was constantly complaining about how unclear the steps were to get my official diploma. Almost none of the steps were straightforward. At each stage, you’d have to stop, somehow find an official, and then they’d tell you to do something that you’d never imagine on your own. The last time I met a particularly kind official, I eagerly suggested an idea—with a hint of complaint, of course.
I told the official, “Wouldn’t it be better if the university made a general guide, so neither students nor officials would have to waste so much time?” The official, whom I was now sure was good-natured, opened a section of the university website and showed me a guide on the page for that purpose.
Even though the guide wasn’t complete, I was taken aback. I hadn’t even thought it existed! This moment was a wake-up call that told me: “You’re a wind-up machine!”
A wind-up machine constantly needs to be wound. It moves a little, then waits for someone else’s help again. This machine “expects” others to wind it up, giving it the energy it needs to move. If no one helps, it just stands there, powerless and motionless, with nothing left but complaints.
In my struggle to get my official diploma, I was just like that wind-up machine—waiting for someone to write a guide, someone to answer my request, someone to fix all this chaos, and more. The result? I’d stand there, waiting, and because I was bored, I’d complain.
Maybe it’s time for me, and all of us, to get moving ourselves despite the problems around us. We should wind ourselves up and stop waiting until all we have left is to complain. Maybe this self-motivation can spark other wind-up machines to start moving too—a collective motion that could make the path forward easier and better for us all.
Placeholder text by Space Ipsum. Photographs by Unsplash.