Last Christmas, my dear friend Amira gifted me a compact book entitled “The Autobiography and Other Writings” by Benjamin Franklin.
It’s my first time to have a hard copy of an autobiography. I wouldn’t have acquired one, much more so about Benjamin Franklin, whose name I somehow remember being related to electricity and have later verified to be connected with the kite experiment.
However, I found myself enjoying the book.
Because the book is so small that I can take it with me anywhere, I started reading it during the in-betweens in my day, when I need to have a mental break (more likely to be engaged in diffused learning as Barbara Oakley taught in Learning How to Learn).
And you know what? Reading an autobiography written in the 1700s felt like a mental exercise because I had to imagine a kind of society I’ve never lived in but still resembles a kind of life one could similarly enjoy.
I also liked how apprenticeship was practiced when Benjamin was growing up, from age 12 until 21, and was only allowed to get a “Journeyman’s Wages during the last Year.” I wish I’d had the same length of apprenticeship and have started that early in my life because I felt like I was too babied in comparison, only encouraged to do my best in school and think about life after. No wonder when I went out of the university aged 21, I was ill equipped and disillusioned.
When I was 30 years old and have worked under four institutions, the fog of disillusionment finally lifted. I learned that to become the best at what I do, I must commit to becoming better at one thing rather than trying to become everything and mediocre at all things.
I also share Benjamin Franklin’s fondness for reading, and I have since learned how making reading a lifelong habit elevates a person from ignorance. I can attest that most of the things I know came from the books I have read and have long since desired to keep the habit going to acquire knowledge.
Looking back, I wish I had taken the idea of apprenticeship to heart. If only I had known how accepting apprenticeship as a part of growth and mastery, I could have spared my heart from developing a bad attitude towards slow-paced and often mundane progress.
Indeed, hard wood takes time to grow.
While I could not blame everything on the four walls of academia for overselling the idea that we could be well paid once we get our degrees and professional licenses, I wish I had been taught that merely getting a degree doesn’t get me paid much, especially fresh out of college.
It took Benjamin Franklin nine years to earn a “Journeyman’s Wages” and it took me about the same amount of time to finally enjoy a liveable wage.
Now I understand that everything is just a phase, an inescapable cycle, and our attitude during apprenticeship also dictates how we would turn out.
Opportunities for growth come for those who seek them while remaining elusive for those who never even try.
jessa 