Maine Diaries: This is not a test
May 21-To you who read my posts--why I will never know as they are usually filled with mindless rants, which I was motivated to write tonight after today’s little escapade with the regiment. Instead, though, I have decided to share an experience of pure luck that I found myself in today.
Often we find that good things only come to those who seek it, and today, I sought hard and got my chance to do a fuel transfer. This may be a benign experience to those used to pulling their cars up to a gas station. But when dealing with thousands of gallons traveling through multiple tanks, the task is a little bit more difficult than punching in your zip code and selecting from the numerous levels of over-priced gas. On top of the multiple confusion of the piping system, we have the second engineer who could confuse and bewilder even the great Socrates—and prides himself on this skill. A simple question from this man can leave the most confident person stuttering for an answer as they stand in pure shock and awe.
I, too, stood dumbfounded as if just hit softly in the head with a large hammer, but pushing past this moment, I calmed my racing heart as I continued opening valves and checking pressures. The questions from the second engineer continued to flow. At first this seemed pointless and a large irritation, but once I looked past the annoyance and confusion I saw the learning experience that lay before me. The world is confusing, and often full of extremely annoying people. The trick is to look past everything else, solve the problems you face, and develop a solution that is so concrete in your head, it has to be correct. Within my teacher’s bewildering questions and his bombardment of ideas, which felt so frustrating when dealing with a complex task like transferring a meager couple of thousand gallons, he sought to show us that if we simply focus, remember what we have been taught, and think logically, we will always come to a solution. The hardest part is sticking with our resolve, and to remain confident that we have the answer.
So I leave you with this: I learned and was challenged more today--while standing outside, in the middle of the Atlantic, on a ship--than in any other classroom in my entire life. So often are we carried and coddled through school with our decisions having few repercussions. Pass and fail were just words. Yes, words that often brought joy or sorrow, but in the end just words. Today, I faced a test that had real ramifications. Without fuel, without proper calculations, engines could shut off, valves could overload and blow, people could get hurt. A fail was simply not an option. Could most of our college students stand up to such a test?
Previous posts:
May 5
May 7
May 9
May 10
May 12
May 13
May 17
May 18
May 19
*Paul Kemp is a pseudonym. The student has asked that his name be withheld out of respect for those with whom he is sailing.
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