“I felt alone and worthless, but now I know that is not true.”
You have been given a challenge. You have been placed in a maze of string and must find a hidden object. Your eyes have been blinded and your ability to speak has been removed. You may use your sense of touch but that is all.
How would you respond? How do you think you would feel? Frustrated? Alone? Wondering if you were the last one still wandering around lost and feeling helpless?
I watched as the students in my group approached this challenge. I was frustrated for them, wanted to help and struggled to remain quiet especially when one would come so close to finding the object only to turn away at the last moment. I desperately wanted to become the bandana bandit and make it easy, but growth comes with the struggle so we let the students struggle to figure out the challenge.
One of the girls in my group said she felt alone and worthless until the next round when we gave them the ability to communicate verbally again, even though they were still blinded. It was then that she discovered not only her need for a team, but that she could help others as well.
The maze reminds me a lot of life sometimes. Maybe you have it all together, but I certainly do not. Even now I kind of feel like someone strapped a bandana to my eyes, put me in the middle of a big puzzle and said, “Ok go for it.”
I like to be self-sufficient. I don’t appreciate needing help or feeling alone or feeling unable to contribute. I think to some degree we all feel this way. So what happens when life throws us into a maze?
Hopefully we find a team to link arms with until we find our way out together so that in the end we emerge victorious and can say, “I may have felt alone and worthless, but now I know that isn’t true.”
