Humans are like water. We have to change when put in new environments. Adapting to change is hard to do, especially as a child. When I read this book as a four-year-old, I was going through a difficult time. I had moved to the USA from Singapore while having little to none knowledge of the English language. At the age of four, I was exposed to three languages other than English. So, as a result, I tended to mix up all of them. The little engine that could was one of the first books I was able to complete in English.
The book was like a never-ending nightmare. Constant struggles, losing where I was, and the occasional bathroom break that resulted in me losing my page and being forced to restart. My parents love to joke about how cute the struggle was. The pure frustration is the only recollection I have of this book. The plot of the book and my effort to read it coincide perfectly. The constant stumbles resulted in me finishing the book in a prolonged time. The books moral was ever-present in my process. I believe that both the book itself and the process of doing so made it seem possible to live in this new place.
The end isn’t where we learn the most. The end is when we realize what we learned. The process is where all the learning occurs, however. Perseverance is an essential trait as it allows us to get through that process, no matter how hard it is to the end. I sometimes wish I could call on that instinct I had as a little child when I tried my hardest to get through the most seemingly trivial matters. The values that were taught at that moment are what probably helped with my speedy pickup of the language. I was nearly on par with my peers by the age of six. When you have the end in mind, the process occurs naturally.
0 Comments